Indian cricket team's Ravichandran Ashwin on 19 September scored his sixth Test hundred while playing against Bangladesh at the M Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
For Ashwin, this is his first century against Bangladesh and also his second consecutive hundred at Chepauk. The fifth century arrived against England in 2021, the last time India played a Test in Chennai.
He completed his 6th century in 108 balls, hitting 10 fours and two sixes.
He also became the second cricketer in the world to score 1000 runs in Test matches and take more than 100 wickets simultaneously. Before him the only player who could achieve this feat also belongs from India and that is Ravindra Jadeja.
Expressing his happiness at the Stumps on Day 1, Ashwin said, as quoted by Cricbuzz, “Always a special feeling to play in front of the home crowd. This is a ground I I completely love to play cricket in. It's given me a lot of wonderful memories. The last time I got a hundred, you were the coach Ravi bhai (Ravi Shastri). It does feel special. It helps that I have come back at the back of a T20 tournament (TNPL), worked quite a bit on my batting. Of course, I have always been wafting my bat around outside off-stump. Worked on a few things and on a surface like this with a bit of spice, if you're going after the ball, might as well go after it really hard like Rishabh does.”
“It's an old Chennai surface with a bit of bounce and carry. The red soil pitch allows you to play a few shots if you are willing to just get in line and give it a bit of a tonk when there's width. He (Jadeja) was of real help, there was a point in time where I was really sweating and getting a bit tired, Jaddu noticed it quickly and guided me through that phase. Jaddu has been one of our best batters for our team in the last few years,” he added.
Hitting the ground to play a Test match after a gap of nearly six months, things didn't work wonders for the world's best Test team.
Indian players appeared lost in front of Bangladesh's bowling attack on Thursday during the first Test at Chepauk. Apart from Yashasvi Jaiswal (56 off 118) and Rishabh Pant (39 off 52), the top order couldn't find the answers to Hasan Mahmud, Nahid Rana and Mehidy Hasan Miraz.
Skipper Rohit Sharma (6), Shubman Gill (0), Virat Kohli (6), and KL Rahul (16) walked to the pavilion with their heads down and were disappointed with their performances.
When Ravichandran Aswhin and Ravindra Jadeja entered the pitch, India were 144 after losing six wickets.
Taking control over the bowlers and understanding the conditions, the two senior players stabilised the Indian innings and helped India reach 339/6 in 80 overs at Day 1 Stumps.
During this, Ashwin scored his sixth century and was batting at 102, while Jadeja was at 86 runs.
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