IND vs BAN - Day 1: Chennai’s Super Kings, Ashwin & Jadeja turn tables

CHENNAI: On a cloudy Thursday, when the sun remained obscured for much of the day, twilight found homegrown hero Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, often considered Chepauk's adopted son, turn the tables on Bangladesh's bowlers with their batting. Known for making life difficult for opponents with their bowling, the duo played a reverse card, countering Bangladesh with the bat.

After a quick fall of wickets left India reeling at 88/3 by lunch, the Ashwin-Jadeja partnership became the knight in shining armour on what was otherwise a quiet day for India’s top order.

Chennai opened its doors on Thursday for India’s first Test of a long season ahead. Najmul Shanto won the toss and chose to make the best of a dampened pitch by bowling first. Playing in just his fourth Test match, Hasan Mahmud answered his captain’s call and made early breakthroughs, taking the wickets of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Virat Kohli — all before the lunch break on day one. This left opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant, who was playing his first senior Test match in 634 days, with the daunting task of pulling India back together.

It was a shaky start for Rohit, as the ball brushed his front pad and prompted a huge appeal from Hasan. The decision was taken upstairs, but since there was no bat involved, it came down to the umpire’s call, and Rohit survived an early scare. However, he didn’t last long, as Hasan returned in the sixth over with a good-length ball around off, which the Indian captain failed to time properly, sending it to his counterpart, Najmul Shanto, at second slip. Shubman Gill spent only about 11 minutes at the crease before he attempted to flick a full ball toward the leg side, but only succeeded in bundling it into the hands of wicketkeeper Litton Das, who had a busy day behind the stumps.

Virat Kohli looked promising, playing his trademark shot through wide mid-on, but with India reeling at 34/2, Hasan was relentless. He came back and dismissed Kohli who played a loose shot that got a healthy edge to the keeper. The fourth-wicket partnership between Pant and Jaiswal helped India add some much-needed runs and recover from the early setbacks. Taskin Ahmed, who had been effective for Bangladesh against Pakistan in the previous series, almost got the better of Pant in the 22nd over. Pant edged the ball behind, but Shadman Islam’s late dive meant Pant survived for a bit longer.

India was at 88/3 at lunch. Shortly after, Hasan was dispatched for a boundary, but he quickly made amends with the next ball. It was short and wide, and Pant played it late, resulting in the ball nicking the toe of the bat and carrying to keeper Das. Gautam Gambhir’s headshake from the dugout suggested he wasn’t impressed with what he was seeing. Jaiswal, however, remained steady from the start as wickets fell at the other end. He hit back-to-back boundaries off Hasan in the 30th over before celebrating his half-century in the 35th.

Nahid Rana finally brought the curtains down on Jaiswal’s innings as Shadman Islam took a good catch at forward short leg. The early morning pace and swing gradually faded, and the pitch became lifeless as the sun came out in the latter stages of the day.

From that point onward, until the close of play, the duo of Ashwin and Jadeja steadily added runs to the scoreboard, with India reaching 300 in the 72nd over.

With just minutes remaining in the day’s play, cameras flashed and fans applauded as Ashwin raised his bat, smiling widely while celebrating his sixth Test century. India closed day one at 339/6, with Jadeja and Ashwin unbeaten on 86 and 102, respectively.

Brief Scores: Day one - India 339/6 (Yashasvi Jaiswal 56, Ravindra Jadeja 86*, Ravichandran Ashwin 102*, Hasan Mahmud 4/58)