India captain Rohit Sharma opted to bowl first after the toss for the second Test against Bangladesh was delayed for an hour due to a wet outfield. With overcast conditions on offer, India named an unchanged side with three pacers getting the nod. Bangladesh, on the other hand, made two changes to the team for the match, which could be former skipper Shakib Al Hasan‘s last outing in the format. Pacer Khaled Ahmed and left-arm spinner Taijul Islam replaced seamers Taskin Ahmed and Nahid Rana, following the 280-run loss in the series-opener in Chennai last week.

Before the toss, a heartwarming fan moment involving Virat Kohli was caught on camera. In a viral video, a member of the ground staff touched Kohli’s feet as the star batter was doing his pre-match warm-up at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. 

India made two big calls – to bowl first and to stick to the same XI. This will be the first instance of teams winning the toss and opting to bowl first in consecutive men’s Test in India. In Chennai Test, Najmul won the toss and elected to bowl first.

The last time India opted to field first in a home Test was in Bengaluru (vs South Africa) in 2015. Only the second instance of a team opting to field first in 24 Tests in Kanpur, the first coming way back in 1964 (vs England)

“We are going to bowl first. The pitch seems a bit soft, so we have to make early inroads and we want our three seamers to make use of it. We didn’t start well with the bat in the first game, but we found a way to score and the bowlers did the job. I expect no different here, we will be challenged but we have the experience. We are playing with the same team,” said Rohit.

Bangladesh captain Shanto said, “Happy to bat first, we wanted to bat anyway. As a batter if we get a start we have to score well. Hope our batters can score big today. Looks like a good wicket to bat on. New ball batting will be key though. Two changes. Nahid and Taskin aren’t playing. Taijul and Khaled are in.”

Playing XIs:

India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj.

Bangladesh: Shadman Islam, Zakir Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto (capt), Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Litton Das (wk), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Hasan Mahmud, Khaled Ahmed.

(With IANS Inputs)

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