Chennai, Sep 19 (IANS): Ravichandran Ashwin's unbeaten 102 along with Ravindra Jadeja's 86 not out did wonders for India after being put to bat first in the opening Test by Bangladesh at MA Chidambaram Stadium on Thursday. The duo not only turned the tide in their favour but also complemented each other in the middle to build a 195-run unbeaten stand for the seventh wicket to take India to 339/6 at the stumps.
Ashwin-Jadeja's mammoth act survived India from early all-out after Hasan Mahmud's four-fer reduced them to 144/6 in 42.2 overs. India had a worst possible start after the right-arm pacer removed captain Rohit Sharma (6), Shubman Gill (0) and Virat Kohli (6) in quick succession, leaving the hosts tottering at 34/3 in 9.2 overs.
Mahmud exploited the weak spots of India's star batters - Rohit and Virat and left them guessing on in-swing and out-swing respectively. Gill was unlucky to get an edge on the ball moving to leg-side, grabbed behind the stumps by Litton Das.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant tried to rebuild India's innings and added a 62-run stand before Mahmud struck again to remove the comeback wicketkeeper for 39.
Jaiswal, who struck a well-made 56 including nine fours, fell pray to pacer Nahid Rana in the second session. Spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz picked KL Rahul for 16 before Ashwin-Jadeja started their show at the familiar Chepauk surface.
"It's an old Chennai surface with a bit of bounce and carry. The red soil pitch allows you to play a few shots if you are willing to just get in line and give it a bit of a tonk when there's width," Ashwin told broadcasters after stumps on day 1.
Local man Ashwin credited his partner for boosting his morale in the gruelling Chennai heat. "He (Jadeja) was of real help, there was a point in time where I was really sweating and getting a bit tired, Jaddu noticed it quickly and guided me through that phase. Jaddu has been one of our best batters for our team in the last few years. Him being there, pretty solid and he was also very helpful in terms of telling me that we don't have to convert twos into threes which was really helpful for me," Ashwin said.
On hitting his second Test century at Chepauk, Ashwin termed it a "special feeling" and revealed the hard work he had done before the series to hone his batting skills.
"Always a special feeling to play in front of the home crowd. This is a ground I completely love to play cricket in. It's given me a lot of wonderful memories. The last time I got a hundred, you were the coach Ravi bhai (Ravi Shastri). It does feel special. It helps that I have come back at the back of a T20 tournament (TNPL), worked quite a bit on my batting. Of course, I have always been wafting my bat around outside off-stump. Worked on a few things and on a surface like this with a bit of spice, if you're going after the ball, might as well go after it really hard like Rishabh does," Ashwin said.
"It's a typical, old-fashioned Chennai pitch where overspin will fetch a bit of bounce. The wicket will start doing its tricks much later in the game. There's enough in it for the quicks, good carry, good bounce if we present the seam nice and hard. The new ball will do a bit, there'll be some help for the bowlers, we'll have to start afresh tomorrow. There's a bit in the pitch, it's still damp underneath, so hopefully as it dries out, it quickens up," the off-spinner added.