Dominant centuries from opener Murali Vijay and skipper Virat Kohli effectively threw the visitors out of the contest on Day 1 of the one-off Test at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.
India, after losing KL Rahul in the first over of the day, went on to score 356/3. Bangladesh’s first day of Test cricket on Indian soil began on an inspiring note as new ball bowlers Taskin Ahmed and Islam Rabbi bowled tight lines in the first hour of the day. Taskin snapping Rahul’s departure in the first over send waves of excitement in the Bangladesh camp.
However, soon the excited faces turned into tired ones as Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay then stood like a wall to forge a 179-run stand for the second wicket. Skipper Kohli arrived after Pujara’s fall in the 51st over and accelerated the scoring rate. Vijay also continued to be solid and languid and reached his century in the third session of the day before unfortunately falling in the 64th over off Taijul Islam’s bowling.
The visitors could have given a better performance on Thursday had they not missed catching opportunities. A dreadful run-out chance in the 19th over which would have sent back centurion Vijay back was another huge goof up. All these errors cost them badly as India now sit firmly in the driver’s seat.
Speaking after stumps on Day 1, Vijay felt that luck was by his side. The right-hander also stated that he focussed on keeping things simple and applauded the work done by Pujara and Kohli.
“Everything went my way during my knock,” Vijay said.
“I felt really good about myself coming into this game and just wanted to play my natural game and stick to the basics. Pujara and I just wanted to keep rotating the strike and that’s what we exactly did. Batting with him gives me a comfort factor because he has a solid game.
“We just keep things simple and not look to try anything different. We have a good rapport in the middle and a lot of things happen between us as you saw with the running. We have been speaking about our running and hopefully, in the future, we would be doing a better job. Virat finished the day in a great manner and hopefully, he would carry on in the first session on Friday,” he concluded.