India will play their first test since March 2024, to restart their World Test Championship campaign against Bangladesh. The first match of the 2-match Test Series will begin tomorrow September 19, 2024. The venue for this fixture is Chepauk and like always, both teams would know the key to winning this game is spinning their way to victory. It’s an unwritten rule in Cricket. In India, and especially on the grippy Chepauk pitch, “Spin is King”. So let’s take a look at which of the two Asian contingents will win the first test of the series, how their bowlers will take advantage of the conditions, and how their batsmen will tackle spin.
Bangladesh Carry Momentum, which India lacks
The Bangladesh Cricket team are coming off an incredible, memorable and historic test series victory in Pakistan, where they beat the Pakistani test side 2-0 in the series. Their best performers in the series? Their spin duo of Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan along with their star batsmen Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das. On the other hand, India hasn’t played Test Match cricket in over 6 months now. Surely there must be some rustiness in the Indian players and that’s something the Bangladeshi’s can take advantage of.
King Kohli to Reign Supreme or Bangla Spinners to wreak havoc
Virat Kohli is arguably the greatest batsman of his generation across all three formats of the game. But it’s no lie that his forme has seen a dip in recent years. Especially in Test cricket, and more so against spinners. From 2021 onwards, in a total of 15 Test Matches, King Kohli has recorded a meagre 30 Avg against spinners in the longest format of the game. With the Bangladeshi having a potent spin line-up of Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam and Shakib Al Hasan, it will be a big task for King Kohli to put up a show of dominance in India’s second oldest Cricket stadium, the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.
History to Repeat itself in favour of India against Bangladesh?
Historically, in the past 10 years, India has had an unbelievable win-loss test record at home which reads 40-4. That is 40 wins and just 4 losses in Test Matches. And Against Bangladesh, India has been even more impressive. The two South-Asian teams have faced off against each other a total of 13 times in Test Matches and India has come out on top in 12 out of those 13 instances. Only once have Bangladesh drawn India in Tests, And they are still yet to beat India in the longest format of the game.
So will History repeat itself for India? Or will Bangladesh make history in Chepauk? Personally, it will be a game that will get wrapped up by the Indian spin contingent of Ravi Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar Patel in the first 3 or 4 days of the Test. But what is your opinion? Let us know in the comments below.
