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Follow UsThe beginning of a new journey
The two teams marked the start of a significant journey together in 2000. When Bangladesh and India met for their first Test clash in 2000, it was Bangladesh’s first Test and India’s first under Sourav Ganguly’s full-time captaincy.
The one-off Test was played in Dhaka’s Bangabandhu Stadium and Bangladesh lost by nine wickets. However, Bangladesh gave India some early jitters. Batting first, they posted 400 on the board, the second-highest score by a team in their maiden Test. They got there at the back of Aminul Islam’s 145 spanned almost nine hours.
In response, India were 236/6 at one moment. Naimur Rahman, an off-spinner and Bangladesh’s first Test captain, snapped 6/132. Ganguly (84), alongside Sunil Joshi (92) batting at number eight, pulled India out of the rut to finish with a 29-run lead for the visitors.
That was the end of Bangladesh's fight. They succumbed to 91 all out in the second innings, the second-lowest total by a team in their maiden Test, paving an easy route for India to get across the finish line. Joshi was the Player of the Match for his 92 and eight wickets in the match.
Bangladesh became the 10th nation to play Test cricket. You could sense joy in the presence of nearly 40,000 people on Day 1. For India, it was the start of a new era under Ganguly.
Tendulkar levels Gavaskar
India’s two-match Test series in Bangladesh in December 2004 saw quite a few significant records. On the first day itself, Anil Kumble went past Kapil Dev’s tally of 434 wickets to become India’s highest wicket-taker in Test cricket. Irfan Pathan bagged his first five-for in the format, playing in his ninth Test.
However, all the focus had shifted to Sachin Tendulkar the next day. He finished the day 159 not out, equalling Sunil Gavaskar’s record of most Test hundreds (34). He had averaged only 15.1 in 10 innings since his previous hundred – the 194 not out in Multan. The world was waiting for Tendulkar to get back in touch and level with Gavaskar. The hundred also made him only the third Test batter to score hundreds against all Test-playing nations, after Gary Kirsten and Steve Waugh.
It wasn’t his most fluent hundreds as he was dropped on 28 and 47 but Tendulkar gathered control as the innings progressed. On Day 3, he notched up his highest Test score, scoring 248 not out, having extended India’s lead to 342 with a 133-run partnership for the 10th wicket with Zaheer Khan, still a record for India for the 10th wicket.
Thus, records gathered more limelight than the competition between the two sides (India won by an innings and 140 runs) in this Test. And Tendulkar’s feat was the talk of the town, not only in Dhaka but worldwide. 12 months later, he went past Gavaskar with 109 against Sri Lanka in Delhi.
Dravid in the record books
After Tendulkar in the first Test, it was Rahul Dravid’s turn to get into the record books in the second. Dravid missed out in the first Test, bagging a duck. But in Chattogram, he put the Bangladeshi attack down to the sword of his willow, crashing 160 with 24 boundaries. He forged a 259-run stand with the other centurion, Gautam Gambhir to put India on top on Day 1.
It was Dravid’s 18th Test hundred and the first in Bangladesh that made him the first batter to score hundreds in all the 10 Test-playing nations at that point. India put 540 batting first and notched up another innings victory. Mohammad Ashraful’s masterful 158 not out, which the Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly deemed the knock of the match, wasn’t enough to save Bangladesh.
Pakistan’s Younis Khan replicated the feat later. Since then, Ireland and Afghanistan have also played Test cricket.
A unique scoreline
The second Test between India and Bangladesh in 2007 saw a one-of-a-kind scorecard. Batting first at the Shere Bangla Stadium in Mirpur, India’s score read 408/1 with each of the top four batters scoring a hundred.
Confused? Here is what happened:
Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik got India off to a great start, putting on 175 for the first wicket. However, the extreme heat and humidity got Karthik who had to retire hurt at 82 with India’s score reading 175/0. Jaffer and Rahul Dravid added another 106 runs when the former suffered the same fate, retiring ill at 138.
Sachin Tendulkar then joined Dravid in the middle with both batters notching up hundreds. When Dravid, batting on 129, spooned a catch to the backward point, India lost their first wicket at the score of 408. Bangladesh had to toil for 108.2 overs to fetch their first wicket, regretting their decision to bowl first. After the overnight rest, Karthik (also out for 129 later) returned to complete his hundred, making it the first instance of top four batters scoring a ton each.
Tendulkar carried on to 122 not out as India declared at 610/3. Bangladesh were bowled out for 118 and 253 (following on), going down by an innings and 239 runs. On contrary to India’s top four, Bangladesh’s opener Javed Omar bagged a king pair. It was also Ishant Sharma’s international debut who went on to play 105 Tests for India.
The Pink Ball debut
India hosted Bangladesh for a two-match Test series in 2019. The second fixture was a day-night Test, the first Pink ball Test in India. The match, staged at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, received a princely build-up under the administration of Sourav Ganguly, the native hero and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president at that time.
The whole venue, including the floodlight towers and the outside periphery of the stadium, followed the pink theme approaching the Test. Former greats Tendulkar, Kumble, Dravid, VVS Laxman were called for the match. The then Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Haseena was also in attendance.
Tickets for the first four days were sold out. But the game ended in three days with Bangladesh batters no match to the might of Indian seamers coupled with the exaggerated zip of the pink ball.
Ishant Sharma picked nine wickets in the match, Umesh Yadav bagged eight and Mohammed Shami scalped two. Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin were wicketless, making it a rare occasion of pacers nabbing all the wickets in a Test match in India. Mahmudullah was retired hurt in the second innings.
Bangladesh were bowled out for 106 and 195 (batting less than 75 overs in total), losing by an innings and 46 runs. Virat Kohli scored 136, his last Test hundred for the next four years.
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