BAN Vs IND, 2nd Test: Former Cricketer Hopeful Of India’s Victory Despite Top-Order Collapse On Day 3

Dhaka: Former India cricketer Saba Karim has lashed out at India’s timid batting approach on Day 3 of the ongoing second Test match against Bangladesh on Saturday but is hopeful that the visitors will win the game. Chasing 145 runs to win, India are four down for 45, still needing 100 runs to win with two full days in hand.

Batting first, Bangladesh put 227 runs on board. In reply, India made 314, thanks to Rishabh Pant’s 93 and Shreyas Iyer’s 84. In the second innings, Bangladesh’s lower middle-order, led by Litton Das (73) and supported by Nurul Hasan Sohan (31) and Taskin Ahmed (31), counter-attacked to take their score to 231, giving their bowlers something to defend.

With a small total to chase, India lost KL Rahul first before Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara followed suit. Virat Kohli was the last Indian batter to be dismissed on the day. Karim highlighted Gill’s example to pinpoint India’s approach.

“The biggest thing is that the difficulty we have currently, we have put it on ourselves. We don’t need this kind of approach. The way Shubman Gill plays, he plays shots easily after stepping out, today he was stepping out but defending,” Karim told Sony Sports.

Karim observed that the Indian players were danching down the ground but instead of showing positive intent, they were trying to defend. “The confidence to play shots was not seen. Before this, whatever knocks he (Gill) has played, he used to step out and play drives. You can get singles there, and you can hit boundaries as well,” he added.

However, Karim is hopefull that India will win the Test match and shouldn’t try not giving up wickets in the first hour of the morning. “Nothing of that sort was seen from the Indian batters because of which a lot of pressure has gotten mounted on India at the moment.

“I still believe India should win this match, but if one or two wickets fall in the first session, the pressure will increase further,” he added. Axar Patel and Jaydev Unadkat will start for India on Day 4 and still have the likes of Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer in their ranks.

If India happen to lose this game, the 118 runs scored by the last four Bangladeshi pairs would haunt them as much as not using a third spinner in Kuldeep Yadav on a track that became increasingly venomous as the match progressed.
If they overhaul 145, it will be third highest successful fourth innings chase at this ground as the top three winning scores are 209, 205 and 103.