In their previous two Tests, in Mumbai and Chennai, India piled up totals in excess of 600 after the opposition had made 400 and 477.
On both occasions, England crumbled under the weight of scoreboard pressure, gifting India emphatic innings victories.
When Virat Kohli’s men, inspired in no small measure by the captain’s 204, posted 687 for seven before declaring in Hyderabad – no team had topped 600 in three consecutive Tests before this – the fear was that Bangladesh would also fold as easily as origami paper.
But more than 16 years after they played their first Test against India – at the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka, which is no longer used for international cricket matches – and in their first five-day game across the border, Bangladesh showed commendable tenacity to keep India in the field right through the third day on Saturday.
There were two moments when India would have hoped to trigger a collapse. First, Ishant Sharma trapped Mahmudullah in front to leave Bangladesh on a precarious 109 for four.
But instead of retreating into a shell, Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim, the team’s most experienced batsmen, took the attack to the bowlers, adding 107 in just 165 balls.
Shakib had been put through the wringer early on, with Umesh Yadav bowling a marvellous spell that fetched him the wicket of Mominul Haque.
Umesh was both pacey and relentless, and he reverse-swung the ball both ways to keep the batsmen guessing. But Shakib, who struck a double century in New Zealand not long ago, survived that torrid spell and then cashed in with some lovely strokes.
Errors in length from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh were ruthlessly punished, especially when there was even a hint of width. And he was far from inhibited against Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja as well, until an impetuous heave at Ashwin, without getting to the pitch, saw a miscue to mid on.
Not long after, with tea imminent, Sabbir Rahman chose to sweep a very full delivery from Jadeja. As Joe Root found out to his cost during the England series, that can be a big mistake.
Sabbir missed, the Indians went up in unison, as did Marais Erasmus’s finger. Bangladesh were 235 for six, still 452 in arrears. Cue the collapse, or so you thought.
But in Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Mushfiqur found an ally who, at the age of 19, already has the makings of a very special cricketer.
He garnered headlines for his 19 wickets in two Tests against England, but as an Under 19 stalwart, Mehedi had been as feted for his batsmanship.
In Hyderabad, he showed why, with an assured half century, where he played Ashwin with the kind of assurance that many senior pros have not managed in recent times.
It may still be a belter of a pitch, but a situation that called for great resolve brought the best out of Mehedi.
Mushfiqur had his own point to prove after a nightmarish couple of days in the field. Even Fox Sports in Australia, which otherwise pays scant attention to Bangladeshi cricket, had featured him on both days – for all the wrong reasons.
On Day 1, there was the decision to review after a ball had thudded right into the middle of Kohli’s bat. And on the second morning, with Wriddhiman Saha on just four, he fluffed a stumping, needing three swishes of the gloves to take the bails off. Saha went on to an unbeaten 106.
Mushfiqur was also far too aggressive with his field placing, allowing Kohli, Saha and those that batted around them to pepper the boundary boards.
An inexperienced attack wilted badly, but they were not helped by the captain’s refusal to embrace pragmatism.
With India so far in front, Bangladesh may yet lose this match. But by scrapping as they have thus far with the bat, Mushfiqur and his side have shown why it is worth investing in them as a Test team.
Indians must learn to cherish and treasure sporting memorabilia
In December 2004, Boria Majumdar, a Rhodes scholar who had channelled much of his energy into researching sporting history, visited Syed Mushtaq Ali in Indore on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
Ali, a dashing opening batsman who made the first overseas Test hundred by an Indian (Old Trafford, 1936), passed away a few months later, but Majumdar remembers that meeting as much for a gesture as for the anecdotes the old stalwart shared.
“He gave me his scrap books,” Majumdar told this reporter. “I thought he was giving them for me to take copies. But no, he actually wanted me to have them.”
Ali’s gesture should perhaps be interpreted as handing over something of historic value to one who would know best how to showcase it properly. Sadly, most Indian sportsmen are still in the dark as to what they should do with their cherished possessions.
Old framed photographs, priceless chronicles of a bygone age, rot in the humid weather.
Newspaper cuttings and ticket stubs become dust. Insects devour blazers and caps. Dismayed by the lack of a ‘preservation culture’ and inspired in part by what he had seen in the MCC Library at Lord’s, Majumdar decided to start a museum to house Indian sporting memorabilia.
‘Fanattic’ – the play on words is a reminder of where most sporting souvenirs end up – was opened in late January by Sachin Tendulkar and other Indian sporting greats.
One of the museum’s prized possessions is the pair of gloves Tendulkar wore while making his 100th international century, against Bangladesh in March 2012.
Hundred No 99 had come against South Africa a year earlier, during India’s victorious World Cup campaign, and Majumdar – who later collaborated with Tendulkar on his autobiography – had made him promise that the gloves he wore for No 100 would be given to the museum. “He gave them to me that night itself,” he recalls.
But there is far more than cricket inside the four walls of Fanattic. It is easy to forget that India was once a hockey nation, whose team won eight Olympic golds between 1928 and 1980.
Majumdar has ticket stubs from each of the eight finals [or final matches] that India won. Only Amsterdam 1928 is missing, and he has not stopped his search for that.
The country’s only other Olympic gold came in Beijing in 2008, when Abhinav Bindra won the men’s 10m air rifle event.
Bindra was another of those present at the inauguration, and the museum features the gloves he wore that morning.
If anything, it is testament to India’s lack of sporting success, and a reminder that we can achieve little without learning the lessons of the past.
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