Virat Kohli's dry run begins; pink-ball extravaganza: Bangladesh's last Test tour of India
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Bangladesh are set to tour India for a Test series for just the third time starting Thursday in Chennai. The two sides play two Test matches, with the second of those to be played from September 27 in Kanpur. This series marks the first leg of India's Test season that also includes a three-match series at home to New Zealand and then a five-match series in Australia.
While Bangladesh did face India in their first-ever Test match in November 2000, it was only in 2017 that they embarked on a red-ball tour of the country for the first time. This will be the ninth series between the two sides and Bangladesh will be hoping to come close to recording their first Test win against India, having stunned Pakistan at their home just before this.
However, facing India at their home in a Test match is among the greatest challenges in cricket, something that some of the senior Bangladesh players would be more than aware of based on their previous experience. Bangladesh's last Test series in India proved to be a 2-0 whitewash in favour of the home nation but there were some significant events attached to it.
First Test: India win by an innings and 130 runs
Bangladesh batted first and were all out for 130 runs. It was the pacers who did most of the wicket-taking for India in this innings, as was the case for much of the series, with Mohammed Shami taking three and Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav taking two each. In response, India declared on a mammoth 493/6 with opener Mayank Agarwal scoring 243 in 330 balls and Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja all scoring half-centuries. Shami took four more wickets while Umesh picked two and Ishant one, with Ravichandran Ashwin taking three wickets as well and India won the match by an innings and 130 runs.
Second Test: India win by an innings and 130 runs
The second Test was held at the Eden Gardens amid much fanfare as this was the first pink-ball Test to be hosted in India. It was also Ishant's 100th Test and he marked the occassion by taking five wickets in the first innings, thus dismissing Bangladesh for 106 runs. Captain Virat Kohli scored 136 in 194 balls as India declared on 347/9 after which Bangladesh capitulated for 195 runs. Ishant took four more wickets while Umesh Yadav took five.
While its significance was obviously not felt then, this match proved to be the beginning of a long dry run of centuries for Virat Kohli, something that was quite unimaginable at the time considering the frequency at which he was churning them out. He next scored an international century only September 8, 2022, which was also incidentally his first-ever T20I century. Kohli's next Test century came in March 2023 when he scored 186 against Australia in Ahmedabad. Kohli's ton in the second Test at the Eden Gardens against Bangladesh was thus the last of his 20 centuries as India's Test captain.
