Pitch leaves curious impression on opening day

Day one of the first Test between Bangladesh and India was a seesaw affair for the most part despite the game remaining in balance at the close of play yesterday.

The Tigers found themselves in a considerably good position at day's end after India clawed their way back in after losing three wickets in the first session, but the pitch itself left a curious impression on Tigers' star performer of the day, Taijul Islam.

There was uneven bounce on the surface and the nature of the Chattogram surface in the past had shown the tendency of getting better for batting as Tests wore on.

Kyle Mayers created a storm in February last year as Windies chased down 395 on the final day in Chattogram, while Pakistan found it easier to bat on a day four and five wicket in November last year as well.

Quite a number of deliveries surprised batters by keeping low on day one. Taijul said the Tigers were uncertain how the wicket would behave later on.

"If you look at the record [in Chattogram] over the last two-three years, the wicket gets better [for batting] day by day. It's difficult to ascertain how it will behave [over the next few days]," Taijul, who picked up three wickets on day one, said at the press conference.

Taijul bowled to a consistent line and length when called upon. Except for an onslaught from Rishabh Pant, batters found facing Taijul difficult.

"Considering it was the first day, the behaviour [of the pitch] was changing from time to time," the 30-year-old added.

India openers negotiated the first 13 overs pretty easily before Shubman Gill top-edged a Taijul delivery with first-slip coming around to catch it at leg-slip position. Lack of bounce then saw KL Rahul chop one onto his stumps soon off pacer Khaled Ahmed, and next over Taijul got one to spin away from leg-stump and trapped Virat Kohli out leg-before for one to leave India at 48 for three.

Pant upped the ante with dazzling shots to put pressure back on Tigers during a 64-run stand with Cheteshwar Pujara before another delivery bounced less than it should have from Miraz and castled him.

Pujara and Sreyash Iyer capitalised on a lackadaisical fielding effort on Bangladesh's part during a 149-run stand. Wicket-keeper Nurul Hasan Sohan dropped Pujara on 12 off Ebadot Hossain and Iyer on 30 off Shakib Al Hasan before Ebadot dropped a sitter at deep mid-wicket with Iyer on 30.

Ebadot thought had made up for the dropped catch when the ball ricocheted off the stumps, without dislodging the bails late in the day but Tigers fought back late in the day as Taijul got Pujara out on 90 with a sharp turner before Mehedi got Axar Patel out leg-before on the final delivery of the day.

"Without the missed chances, maybe they would have been five or six down with 10-15 overs left in the day and it wouldn't have been impossible to bowl them out," he rued about the missed chances.

Pujara, who came to the press conference for India, felt being down by six wickets was 'not too much', adding that '350 would be a decent total on this pitch.'

"You are never set on this kind of pitch; you have to concentrate hard for a longer period of time," Pujara reminded.

Taijul remained sceptical too. "We can't yet determine what will happen [in this pitch],'' he said.

The players all saw the funny side of the bails not getting dislodged to an Ebadot delivery but the lack of bounce such as on that delivery will be the key as the match wears on.