Whenever it comes to playing aggressive cricket with a carefree mindset in a Test match, England’s name comes forward at the beginning for the way they drew their plans in the last two years. But India jumped five steps ahead and displayed how brutal they could be as a team if the situation demands in the red-ball format.
The second of the two-match Test series against Bangladesh at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur could have been rolling towards a boring draw if had not India shown their versatile brand of cricket with the bat in hand. The day of the game saw just 35 overs with the ball before two consecutive washouts on the second and third day’s play weren’t giving much hope of extracting a result from the game.
The first job was to get the last seven wickets of the visiting side, which they did brilliantly thanks to their premier pacer, Jasprit Bumrah, who destroyed the lower order of the opponent side just an hour after the lunch break. It was time for India to make sure that the game would move on.
“India are playing Bazball”- Micheal Vaughan highlights
The expectation was to see the opening partnership of the Indian team, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma, be a little aggressive with their intent in the batting. The first over against Hasan Mahmud found the left-handed opener smashing the bowler for four boundaries, which sent the message clear around the ground.
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Then came Khaled Ahmed from the other end as Rohit danced down the track against the pacer and nailed him straight down the ground for an over-boundary. The length of the next ball was cut short as he pulled the second delivery over deep square leg for another six.
They put on 51 runs without any damage in the first three overs before the Indian captain was dismissed. But the best thing was how the following batter kept on doing the same. Shubman Gill scored 39 runs in 36 deliveries with the help of four boundaries and one six.
Jaiswal ended on 72 runs in 51 balls, shouldering on 12 boundaries and a couple of sixes, as India dropped down Virat Kohli at number, a number where he batted for the very first time since the farewell Test match of Sachin Tendulkar. The former captain nailed 47 runs in 35 balls, while KL Rahul gave them the right momentum towards the end for his 68 runs in 43 balls.
Coming into this Test match, the wicket-keeper batter was going through a rough patch but showed his power in the game with the help of seven boundaries and a couple of sixes. Even Akash Deep, coming at number ten, drilled a couple of sixes in the first five deliveries before India declared on 285/9 in just 34.4 overs.
The former England captain, Michael Vaughan, decided to take a jab at India with their new template and tempo with the bat and reckoned that they had been following the Bazball of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum.
“I see India are playing Bazball.” The Ashes-winning captain draws comparison.
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The biggest challenge for India is to get a positive result from this Kanpur Test, and if they don’t do so, then the Blue Brigade will face a tougher challenge, needing five more wins in the remaining eight games, including five in Australia for the World Test Championship (WTC) final qualification.
At the end of the Bangladesh series, the home side will host New Zealand for another three-match series, which starts on October 16.