India are dominating the first Test against Bangladesh in CHattogram, thanks to the clutch of performances which contributed to put the KL Rahul-led side on driver seat after the summation of Day 2. It started with Cheteshwar Pujara's resilient 90 followed by Shreyas Iyer's vital 86 and Rishabh Pant's cameo to steady India's boat from a precarious position of 48/3. But one player who surprised everyone is Kuldeep Yadav, who not only did the star work with the ball, but also dazzled with the bat (40 off 114) along with Ravichandran Ashwin (58 off 113).
The ace spinner paired with Ashwin to stitch a crucial 92-run partnership to steer India from 293/7 to a commanding 404. And then took Bangladesh batters to cleaners with his outstanding spell of 4/33 to leave the hosts teetering at 133/8 at the close of Day two.
Meanwhile, India's veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik lauded Kuldeep for his wizardry and said, “The key moment for me was the second ball he bowled to Shakib Al Hasan, somebody who is a very good player of spin. He knows how to tackle a spinner. Stepped out but the ball just dipped a little bit in front and got enough turn for him to play the wrong shot. That was really good bowling. That ball would have given Kuldeep a lot of confidence and that was the starting of his spell”.
"From there on you could see Kuldeep in full flow. He troubles good batters. You can see from the batters who came after that, really struggled to play him. That was really heartening. It will keep India in good stead even when they travel abroad but more so for the forthcoming series against Australia. He will become a good weapon to have," he further added.
The 28-year-old legspinner struck off his second ball, compelled Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan to hand Virat Kohli a catch at slip for three, which left Bangladesh wobbling at 75/5. Kuldeep then dismissed Nurul Hasan (16), Mushfiqur Rahim (28) and Taijul Islam (0) to help India get the hold of the match.
