Former India pacer Ajit Agarkar gave his observations on the pitch on Day 1 of the ongoing Bangalore Test between India and Sri Lanka.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first. India was bowled out for 252 which now seems a match-winning total as the pitch has been a really difficult one to bat on, assisting the spinners very much; 9 out of India’s 10 wickets fell to spinners.
There was puffs of dust coming out of the pitch right from the first over and it will only further break down as the game progresses. The first Test match in Mohali ended within three days; this one also seem to be on the course of an early finish.
The ball was spitting off the straight, turning square, with some going on with the angle making life difficult for the batters who regularly got beaten on both the edges. Not just the turn, but the variable bounce – Virat Kohli was dismissed by a delivery that stayed much lower than he expected – is the most perplexing thing to handle on this surface.
Sharing why it’s been challenging for the batsmen, Ajit Agarkar gave this review on the Bangalore pitch: “We saw it in the first hour itself when the spin came on, how much it spun. There were some balls which bounced and kept really low, so it is tricky. It’s not just about surviving, you will have to get runs as well and getting runs means you will have to take risks,” the former pacer said while speaking with Star Sports.
Shreyas Iyer was India’s best batter on the day, with a counter-attacking 92 off 98 balls in a knock that included 10 fours and 4 monstrous sixes; no other Indian batsman went past 40.
Agarkar hailed Shreyas for his thunderous knock on this pitch where the ball was turning and spitting like a cobra.
“It’s a special innings. When he looks back, he will be very proud of it because of how difficult it was for most batsmen with a ball and a pitch like that. Initially, maybe he took a couple of chances, got away but later on was very decisive, even when he defended the first of 25-30 runs that he played and then counter-attacked,” Agarkar said of Iyer’s knock.
It was the Indian pacers – Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami – who then dismantled the Lankan batters under the lights with the pink ball in the third session. Sri Lanka are 6 wickets down for 86 runs, still trailing by 166 runs.
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