India witnessed a remarkable turnaround on Day 1 of the opening Test match of the two-game series against Bangladesh at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai after the visiting pacers reduced the hosts to 144 for six an hour after lunch. But local hero Ravichandran Ashwin, who celebrated his 38th birthday two days back, combined with fellow all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja to stitch a valiant unbeaten stand of 195 runs that helped revive India, leaving them at 339 for six at Stumps.
Under the overcast sky and the seam-friend Chennai condition, Hasan Mahmud removed Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli within the opening hour for just 12 runs after India were put to bat first. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant did look to rebuild but were taken down by Nahid Rana and Hasan, respectively, after their fifty-run stand. KL Rahul, too, was sent back after a short while, leaving India in a spot of bother.
However, the spin all-rounders Ashwin and Jadeja bailed India out of trouble. The right-hander played some glorious shots to get off the mark, and Jadeja, too, scored briskly as Bangladesh bowlers ran out of plans. Ashwin eventually reached his sixth Test century, equalling former India captain MS Dhoni’s career tally, which was also his second at home and the fastest in his career, having reached the mark in 108 balls.
The knock also saw Ashwin emulate Sachin Tendulkar’s feat of scoring back-to-back tons in Chepauk. Ashwin had notched up his maiden century at his home ground in the second Test match against England in 2021. Tendulkar, on the other hand, holds the record of scoring a hat-trick of tons in Chennai – 155* against Australia in 1998, 136 against Pakistan in 199 and 126 against the Aussies in 2001.
The stunning partnership and the century knock left India legends Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly in absolute awe.
A plethora of records of the Jadeja-Ashwin stand
The unbeaten 195-run stand between Ashwin and Jadeja is currently the highest partnership for seventh wicket or below for India against Bangladesh in Test cricket. The duo went past the previous best of 133 between Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan for the 10th wicket in Dhaka in 2004. This is also the duo’s best partnership, surpassing their previous best of 130 against Sri Lanka in Mohali last March. Overall, Ashwin has been involved in four seven-wicket stands, only behind former India captain Dhoni (7).
Meanwhile, Ashwin climbed to the second spot in the list of most Test centuries at No. 8 or below. His current knock is his fourth such instance, taking his past Pakistan’s Kamran Akmal and leaves him only behind New Zealand legend Daniel Vettori.
