DHAKA: In India's comprehensive 188-run victory over Bangladesh in Chattogram, the visitors' batting had many people stepping up to take the side to a position of strength.
Cheteshwar Pujara made 90 and 102 not out in both innings, while Shubman Gill registered his maiden Test century in the second innings and Rishabh Pant set the base for a counter-attack with a quick 46 in the first innings.
Shreyas Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin made 86 and 58 respectively, while Kuldeep Yadav chipped in with a career-best 40 in the first innings score of 404. There were some lofty shots from Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj too.
It is a sign that contributions to India's total are coming from all places in the batting order, something which batting coach Vikram Rathour emphasised on ahead of the second Test against Bangladesh starting from Thursday.
"We are looking at everybody to contribute with the bat. Ashwin, Kuldeep, both batted really well. It was good to see that because they do put in a lot of hardwork. If you look at our net sessions, they are always looking to have a bat and then work hard on their skills. So, it was good to see that," he said in the pre-match press conference.
Rathour is also expecting talismanic batter Virat Kohli to come good in Tests after he couldn't leave much of an impact at Chattogram. "For me, he is the absolutely same Virat. He works really, really hard and has always worked hard on his cricket. Even when he was going through a so-called lean phase, he really worked hard."
"We are continuing to see that as he still works very hard, takes his fitness sessions really seriously and puts in lot of effort. Same goes for Gill and all the other guys, like Pujara bats really hard in the nets. So, its good when all of that hard work pays off."
While the Chattogram pitch had slowness and even eased out a bit on day four, Dhaka's pitches have known to be batting friendly on day one, before assisting spinners immensely, which will challenge Indian batters hugely.
"It will depend on the kind of surface we get. We still haven't really looked at the surface. It's kind of covered with a lot of dead grass. However it plays, we need to make as many runs as we can, I can't really put a number to it. If we get to bat first, we will look to put up a big score and see how it goes."
"We are expecting it to be a supporting wicket, whichever way it goes, we want the Test match to be decided. Both the teams are looking forward to having a good Test match. It's definitely much better now from earlier times when we travelled."
"It used to be a pretty slow and low wicket. There used to be low-scoring games but it's much better now. The approach will be to play good cricket and to win. Even in ODIs, we saw it had more help for bowlers. It had more pace. I'm sure this game will get decided," elaborated Rathour. IANS
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