Bangladesh all-rounder Mehidy Hasan was taken aback by India’s ultra-aggressive batting approach on the penultimate day of the second Test match at Green Park, Kanpur on Monday. After the Tigers were bundled out for 233, India posted 285-9 in just 34.4 overs at an impressive run rate of 8.28.
Indian openers – Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma – were able to hit the ground running, scoring 50 runs off just 18 balls, which is the fastest in the history of Test cricket.
Jaiswal scored a fine knock of 72 runs off just 51 balls whereas KL Rahul also got back to form, scoring 68 off only 43 balls. Furthermore, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill scored quickfire knocks of 47 and 39 runs respectively.
Mehidy Hasan said in the post-day press conference, “Actually they played with a good plan and yes I was surprised. After two-three overs we were thinking that they had a plan. We just played to our strength and tried to restrict the damage to our innings.
“In Test cricket, you can see different scenarios and the way the game turned out it looked like T20 cricket. They planned to come here and play for a win and everyone from top to bottom played for runs and we tried to squeeze the runs,” the 26-year-old went on to add.
Hasan admitted they are not thinking about winning the Test match as they are on the back foot.
“We need more time if we want to play for a win. We have one day left, we will have to give them a target and then take 10 wickets. For now, our safety is more important than thinking about a win from here. We will try to bat for a long time tomorrow. If such a situation arises, then we may play to win. We are thinking about ourselves first.”
On the other hand, Mominul Haque scored an unbeaten knock of 107 runs off 194 balls and Hasan admitted the other batters could not give the left-hander any support.
“The first innings is very important for Tests and Mominul bhai really batted well we could not give him support and if we could give him support in that case the game could have been different and it would have been better for us.”
Bangladesh were 26-2 in their second innings at stumps on day four.
