 "India vs Bangladesh: Who is Hasan Mahmud, the pacer who took a fifer in the first Test?")
India’s home season got underway in Chennai on Thursday with Rishabh Pant making his first Test appearance since December 2022. Virat Kohli and KL Rahul also returned to the India Test XI , the former having missed the entire home assignment against England and Rahul having played just the first match in that series.
In a rare move, India entered the Test with three quicks in the XI instead of two with Akash Deep being included alongside Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj besides Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja as the two spin options.
LIVE | India vs Bangladesh, 1st Test in Chennai, Day 2
India’s home season, however, got off to a rocky start with the hosts losing three early wickets after being invited to bat by Bangladesh. Both Rohit and Kohli departed for 6 while Shubman Gill was out for a duck, resulting in the home team getting reduced to 34/3.
And the bowler responsible for guiding the ‘Tigers’ to a fantastic start in the morning session of the opening day of their tour was Hasan Mahmud. The pacer set the ‘Hitman’ up with a series of testing deliveries that swung either way, eventually leading to an outside edge off an away-swinger that resulted in a catch in the slips.
Mahmud would then get both Gill and Kohli caught-behind in his next two overs, strangling the former down the leg side before tempting the legendary batter into going for a drive away from the body that resulted in an outside edge.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsOpener Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant managed to rescue India from a shaky position with an unbeaten fourth-wicket partnership that was worth 54 at lunch, with India ending the morning session in a relatively better position of 88/3.
Mahmud, however, would break the partnership right after lunch, getting Pant caught-behind on 39 to deny the Indian wicketkeeper-batter a half-century on Test comeback.
The 24-year-old would complete the fifer on Day 2 with the wicket of Jasprit Bumrah. A length ball just outside off squared the India seamer and brought about an outside edge which was taken comfortably at third slip. The seamer would look skyward after the feat, go down on his knees and did the sajdah in celebration.
Mahmud has been in fine form for the Tigers and had played a supporting role in Bangladesh's historic 2-0 sweep of the Test series in Pakistan , and his superb bowling was an extension of his outstanding run in the preceding series.
Who is Hasan Mahmud? What role did he play in Bangladesh’s victory in Pakistan?
While Hasan Mahmud is relatively new to the Test scene, he is somewhat experienced as far as the limited-overs formats are concerned, having represented Bangladesh in 22 ODIs and 18 T20Is since making his debut at home against Zimbabwe in March 2020, right before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He had played just a solitary T20I when he made his ODI debut came less than a year later in January 2021 against West Indies, also at home, making an instant impression with figures of 3/28.
Mahmud has been among Bangladesh’s most promising fast bowlers in recent years and has been part of a pace attack together with the likes of seniors Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed as well as Shoriful Islam that has helped the Tigers somewhat reduce their dependence on the spin department.
Besides his 14 Test wickets, Mahmud has 48 wickets to his name in the limited-overs formats (30 in ODIs, 18 in T20Is). That includes a haul of 5/32 against Ireland in 2023, his only five-for for Bangladesh in the white-ball formats, as well as 3/47 against India in their T20 World Cup clash in Adelaide in 2022.
Much like Day 1 in Chennai, Mahmud has dismissed Rohit cheaply in the Adelaide Oval back then, and later getting rid of all-rounder Hardik Pandya on 5.
As for the recent tour of Pakistan, in which Bangladesh not only beat the home team for the first time in the Test format but ended up sweeping the series, Mahmud had finished as the third-highest wicket-taker with 8 wickets at an average of 24.12.
Read | Five Bangladesh players who stood out in Test victory over Pakistan
That included a maiden Test five-for (5/43) in Pakistan’s second innings in the second Test that combined with fellow pacer Nahid Rana’s 4/44, helped the visitors bowl the Shan Masood-led side out for 172.
Bangladesh were set a target of 185 as a result, which they successfully chased down with six wickets to spare.
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