The left-handed opening batsman Zakir Hasan led an inspirational fightback for Bangladesh, striking his maiden century, but his efforts went in vain along with that of the other home team batsmen as rampant India stormed to a huge victory by 188 runs in the first Test at Chattogram to take an unassailable 1-0 lead.
Bangladesh, who were bowled out for just 150 their first innings, finished at a respectable 324 thanks to a 124 run opening stand between Zakir Hasan and Nazmul Hossain Shanto, who made a respectable 67 from 156 balls with the help of seven boundaries.
Zakir Hasan batted long and hard and handled the pressure really well in his early days in Test cricket to score hundred from 224 balls with the help of 13 boundaries and a six, an innings which was appreciated by batting maestro and former India captain Virat Kohli once the southpaw was dismissed.
The Bangladeshi bowlers opening batsmen did really well to keep India had been in the first session of the fourth day’s play on Saturday but once their resistance was broken, they could not find any other batsmen barring captain Shakib Al Hasan who could take the attack to the opposition or even drop the anchor in the middle.
The left-handed Shakib Al Hasan, who was dismissed for cheap in the first innings, finished at 84 from 108 balls with six sixes and as many boundaries but the other Bangladeshi batsmen including Yasir Ali (5), Liton Das (19), Mushfiqur Rahim (23), Nurul Hasan (3) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (13) could not trouble the scorers much as India notched up a big victory.
For the visitors, Akshar Patel was the pick among the bowlers in the second essay returning with impressive numbers of 32.2-10-77-4, followed by Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav who had taken a 5-wicket haul in the first innings. Kuldeep Yadav added more wickets to his credit in the second innings to finish at 20-3-73-3 while the others in Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin claimed one wicket apiece.
For India, Kuldeep Yadav with eight wickets in the match was the star performer while the return among centuries for Cheteshwar Pujara and their opening batsman Shubman Gill hitting his maiden century were the major takeaways.
However, there were a few concerns given that their stand-in captain KL Rahul continued to flop with the bat and venerable spin bowler Ravichandran Ashwin, who is known to be an extremely successful operator in the spin friendly conditions in Asia, could manage only one wicket in the entire game.
With Rohit Sharma ruled out for the second Test as well, starting on December 22 at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka, it is expected that India won’t make any changes to their side despite the likes of Jaydev Unadkat knocking at the door.