Chennai Test: Cometh the hour, cometh local hero Ravichandran Ashwin

Cometh the hour, cometh Ravichandran Ashwin. The phrase has been reduced to a cliché of sorts over the past decade as the 38-year-old continues to serve Indian cricket – both with the bat and ball as the occasion demands.

The M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, a venue which he grew up learning the ropes, turned out to be the perfect setting for the man as he cracked his sixth Test century – his fastest in 108 balls - against a spunky Bangladesh on the first day of the first Test on Thursday. It came in the company of Ravindra Jadeja, his partner-in-crime, as they stitched together a priceless, unbeaten 195-run partnership to put the hosts back in control.

Hailed as a thinking cricketer in his fraternity, the off spinner with over 500 Test wickets (only the second one in active cricket apart from Nathan Lyon now) and over 3000 runs is a one-format player in international cricket these days. It gives him time to pursue his several other interests: the latest being writing an autobiography of sorts, running a highly viewed Youtube channel in Tamil and also owning a chess franchise in the Global Chess League.

However, what he has not lost in the process is the hunger to succeed at the highest level and keep innovating himself as a cricketer. The unbeaten 102, his second Test century at Chepauk, was a fine example of that when Ashwin often fell back on unorthodox methods honed in his long association with the IPL as well as the TNPL (Tamil Nadu Premier League) to lead a counterattack against a tiring Bangladesh attack.  

When Ashwin and Jadeja had joined hands, India were somewhat delicately poised at 144 for six with young right arm pacer Hasan Mahmud prising out the ‘Big Two’ of captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant. When stumps were drawn with India sitting pretty at 339 for six, they looked much in control again.

Seventh wicket record

Their dour stand for the seventh wicket shattered a 24-year-old Indian record against Bangladesh. The previous record was held by Sourav Ganguly and Sunil Joshi, who put together a 121-run stand in the Dhaka Test of 2000.

Jadeja, who bid adieu to the T20 format after their Caribbean hurrah alongwith Rohit and Virat, weathered some early storm from the pacers before settling down. Now batting on 86, the century is there for the taking for him and India will like to extend their innings as much as possible on the second day.

Just playing the fourth Test of his career, the 24-year-old Bangladesh seamer Hasan can take immense pride in the way he lured both Rohit and Virat to their doom by attempting shots outside the offstump earlier. He added the wicket of Shubman Gill in the first session itself – while Rishabh Pant gifted him the fourth wicket with a needless poke on the seventh or eighth stump after doing the initial hard work.

The arrival of Hasan, along with the beanpole figure of Nahid Rana in their Test fold against Sri Lanka earlier this year, has surely added teeth to the Bangladesh pace attack in recent times. The duo played a big role in them scripting a historic 2-0 triumph in Pakistan and the controlled aggression they showed on a Chepauk deck with bounce and carry – with a bit of overcast condition to boot – will add tremendously to their self belief.