India vs Afghanistan | Talking points from Day 1 in Bengaluru

06/14/2018

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Afghanistan’s maiden Test match opened like a roller coaster ride with India first racing to 347/6 with Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay both getting centuries before experiencing a massive collapse. However, the inexperienced Afghanistan side learned quickly and are expected to improve from hereon.

Brief scores: India 347/6 (Shikhar Dhawan 107, Murali Vijay 105; Yamin Ahmadzai 2/32, Wafadar 1/53) at the end of Day 1 against Afghanistan in Bengaluru.

Afghanistan’s nascent captaincy cost them heavily

Despite the heart-warming backstory that Afghanistan’s steady rise boasts of, one cannot deny the fact that their playing prowess happened to coincide massively with the fast gaining T20 format, which went in a long way in them gaining prominence in international cricket. After years of honing their skills in the limited format and gaining considerable success, the transition to the red ball was always going to be tough. And it was less about the change in playing style and more about their mindset. That was exactly where Afghanistan were mostly underpinned in the historic game and the 30-year-old Asghar Stanikzai found himself clueless in his role as the skipper.

He kept setting an offensive field set even when it was clearly seen that both Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay could get boundaries almost at will. The southpaw scored 107 runs in 96 balls that included 19 boundaries and three sixes. Vijay, although slow, managed to get 15 boundaries and a six in his 105-run knock. India didn’t pull up their feet from the accelerator and Stanikzai remained adamant for most of the game. Apart from that, Stanikzai would also be kicking himself for ignoring his bowler and wicketkeeper, who were confident that Dhawan had got an edge. It could have negated the threat way before in the first session. But, that is what Afghanistan will have to deal in the next few years – they will have to be a fast learner, extremely fast.

Rashid Khan learns late but eventually arrives

The biggest debate ahead of the historic one-off Test was how would India deal with Rashid Khan. The 19-year-old had taken the country by storm in the IPL and the recently concluded three-match T20I tri-series against Bangladesh, which was held in Uttarakhand. Rashid had taken 30 wickets in these tournaments and ahead of the series had even issued a warning to Indian batsmen by stating that he knew ‘five different types of deliveries’. And while his confidence was well-founded after evidently, the greatest of batsmen failed to decode his mystery in T20s, his challenge had somewhat given away his weakness too.

Rashid Khan pitch map in his first 18 overs © ESPNCricinfo

Rashid conceded a whopping 105 runs in 18 overs for one wicket, becoming the costliest bowler in the team, and a closer look at his pitch map would reveal his horrendous indiscipline. The man who is known to maintain an impressive economy rate in IPL could get only one maiden in the entire first day. It seemed like the mystery bowler kept bowling all his five different kinds of delivery in all the six balls that he got in an over, hoping that it would click at some point of time. With the offensive field setting also favorable for the batsmen, Dhawan could be seen flogging him to the ropes almost at will with his sweep shot coming in extremely handy. However, Rashid eventually got his mojo somewhat back at the last few overs of the day where we could him use his leg-cutters more consistently. It also led him to take out Ajinkya Rahane early on. He ended the day with fiures reading 120/1 in 18 overs.

India don’t any notes ahead of England series

Despite India’s terrible attempt in recreating South African conditions in Dharamsala and Kolkata when they faced Sri Lanka at the end of last year, the BCCI wasn’t accused of not trying. However, if this one-off Test match was supposed to be a practice game for the Indian players ahead of their much awaited long tour of England over the next few months, then BCCI has failed massively. The pitch prepared at Chinnaswamy was as flat as anything with hardly any lateral movement whatsoever for the bowlers. Even under cloudy conditions, the ball hardly saw any movement. Most of the players from this squad are expected to start against England in the Test series and although the tour has kept the longest format right at the end, the players don’t go to England prepared at all.