Akash Deep continues to shine bright as Kanpur once again welcomes Test cricket with open arms

There is something special in the air if there is a Test match in Kanpur. More so, on the first day of the game. Despite the prediction of rain, the local fans’ craze for Test cricket was refreshingly nice. In an era of IPL, one doesn’t expect such enthusiasm for the longest format of the game in many parts of India. Kanpur, however, has a great tradition of hosting Test cricket as it was one of the six permanent Test centres until a decade back.

Young fans had assembled near the stadium across the various entry gates from 7 am, and a surprise was the sense of discipline that was observed in all the queues. It wasn’t a typical Indian stadium where chaos is taken as the usual part of the proceedings during matches. Of course, heavy presence of local police on all roads may have something to do with that but speaking to nearly 100 fans one got the sense that many came to see Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in flesh as this could be their last international game in Kanpur. Like majority of the cricket experts and media persons, the fans almost took it for granted that local hero Kuldeep Yadav would certainly feature in the playing XI.

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The toss got delayed by an hour (due to wet outfield) and so did the start of the play and disappointingly for the thousands of fans in attendance, the wait for Kuldeep Yadav bowling at his home ground also got delayed by at least for couple of more years. If the absence of Kuldeep was shocking for the fans, Indian captain Rohit Sharma startled everyone with his decision to bowl first and stick to the same XI, the winning combination of Chennai intact for this game.

Maybe, it had something to with Bangladesh! For the record, the last time India played an unchanged XI in two successive home Tests also happened to be against Bangladesh in Indore and Kolkata way back in 2019. Besides that, this is the first instance of teams choosing to field first in consecutive Tests in India. If the hosts do not win this game, the decision of Indian captain will be debated a lot after the match because last time India took such bold decision (winning the toss and bowling first in a home Test) was almost a decade back – against South Africa in Bengaluru in November, 2015.

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Perhaps, the presence of three of the top six bowlers from the latest ICC Test rankings may have emboldened Rohit, that nature of the surface doesn’t count for much if you have Ravichandran Ashwin (world No. 1), Jasprit Bumrah(No. 2) and Ravindra Jadeja(No. 6) in your armoury. However, it wasn’t the versatile trio that gave India its first breakthrough. In fact, Bumrah didn’t get a single wicket and Jadeja was not even called up to bowl in the 35 overs that took place before play was called off early .

Read | Will it rain in Kanpur again? Weather forecast for remaining days of 2nd Test

The day, instead, belonged to the ever-improving fast bowling sensation Akash Deep, who was introduced in the ninth over and immediately struck with his third ball. Zakir Hasan was gone for a 24-ball duck. A few overs later, Akash got another wicket in Shadman Islam due to DRS as the on-field umpire had denied the big shout for lbw.

Surprise, surprise Rohit Sharma! 😍

A successful review by the #TeamIndia skipper brings Akash Deep his 2nd wicket of the game! 🙌#INDvBAN #JioCinemaSports #IDFCFirstBankTestSeries pic.twitter.com/YiJMxqzbXm

— JioHotstar Reality (@HotstarReality) September 27, 2024

The confidence of the 27-year-old pacer was laudable as he persuaded the captain to go for DRS as not too many were convinced with his appeal. Ashwin had revealed to this writer on the eve of the match on his new YouTube channel in Hindi on how he was playing the role of a translator for his teammate when he was chatting with new bowling coach Morne Morkel.

The Rohtas-born bowler is never in awe of anyone despite coming from a small town in Bihar and just before the game, he too had explained that how the captain has made his thought process simple. “I am very fortunate to play for India under (Rohit Sharma),” Akash had said on Wednesday.

“He keeps things so simple. I had some hesitation when I came to the Indian team, about the pressure, some confusion… but when I got to the ground, (Rohit) bhaiya made things so simple for me that I didn’t know if I was playing domestic cricket or international cricket. I don’t think in my life I could have asked for a captain who makes things so simple,” added the bowler who is just playing his third match for India but in all likelihood is going to be an automatic pick for the upcoming tour of Australia.

It is quite ironic that the Bengal pacer may not have got this opportunity if his idol Mohammed Shami was fit to play. Shami has played a big role in Akash’s career and sometimes the resemblance of his bowling action with Shami can be attributed to that. However, in just a short time, this young pacer is carving his own niche as someone who is not reliant on good pitches to get wickets. Just before the game, the pacer had also revealed that Green Park was the first international ground he saw as a youngster. If he can add three more wickets on Saturday, it will make his first outing as an India player on this ground even more memorable.

And be assured Akash will not be short of support from the local fans as thousands have come from Banaras, Banda, Lucknow, and many neighbouring cities of Kanpur. Long live Test cricket in this part of the world which is not spoilt by the riches of the IPL yet.