India lost two early wickets in the form of their openers, KL Rahul and Shubman Gill. They were under tremendous pressure on day one of the opening Test match. The entire responsibility fell on Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant after Virat Kohli was dismissed cheaply.
The surface was favouring the spinners, Pujara built a partnership with Shreyas Iyer to put India in a healthy position on day1. The former scored 90 off 203 balls before Taijul Islam dismissed him. Iyer remained unbeaten on 82*.
Soon after the end of the day’s play, the batter revealed how difficult was it to keep going in the Test. Pujara was happy with his performance despite missing out on a century.
“I’m really happy with the way I batted today” – Chesteshwar Pujara
“The way I was batting and looking at the pitch – it’s not an easy pitch to bat on. So, I’m really happy with the way I batted today. Sometimes we just pay attention to the three-figure mark but the most important thing is that when you play this sport is that try and put your team in a position where we have chance of winning the game. So, the pitch looks like that there will be a result and we needed some runs on the board. So, I think my partnership with Shreyas (Iyer) was very important,” said Cheteshwar Pujara in the press conference after day one.
Rishabh Pant took an aggressive approach against the Bangladeshi. He started well but failed to convert it to a big score as he was dismissed by Mehidy Hasan on 46. Nevertheless, Pant released the pressure of Pujara.
“Rishabh always keeps his strategy very simple. He likes to play attacking cricket and that’s good for us. He can put the bowlers under pressure and that always helps us to build a partnership. He likes to play his shots and courtesy of which, I too get a few loose balls from time to time. I think we always enjoy that partnership because he knows that I am there at the other end. He plays his natural game which is important for the team as well,” Cheteshwar Pujara added.
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