India vs Sri Lanka, 2nd Test Day 1 Stats Review: Rohit Sharma's feat, Shreyas Iyer's unique record and other stats

Track in the opening day of the ongoing second Test between India and Sri Lanka was nowhere close to a typical Day 1 pitch. It was an absolute dust bowl, with puffs of dust blowing right from the first over of the match. India managed to post 252, which frankly put them in the driver’s seat. Shreyas Iyer played a golden knock of 92(98), which can turn out to be a match-winning effort. After India finished with a more than respectable score, their bowlers went all guns firing to reduce Sri Lanka to 86/6 at the end of Day 1.

Meanwhile, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bat in India’s third pink-ball Test at home, and the first Day-Night Test in Bengaluru. The Karnataka State Cricket Association permitted a 100 percent crowd for this match. On such an occasion, India quickly lost both their openers at a team score of just 29. It was then the full house Bengaluru crowd went gaga, as their ‘home’ player Virat Kohli arrives to the crease. He shared a crucial 49-run stand with Hanuma Vihari, that took India to a respectable position.

After both of them were dismissed in quick succession, Rishabh Pant joined forces with Shreyas Iyer and the duo steadied the ship. While Pant made a quickfire 39, Shreyas missed out on his second Test ton. The Indian bowlers will now look to wrap this Test as soon as possible. They had broken partnerships at regular intervals to ensure Sri Lanka do not have any remote chance. It all started with Jasprit Bumrah quickly taking Sri Lanka’s first two wickets, both caught off Shreyas Iyer.

Then came Shami into the attack, who straightaway claimed the wicket of skipper Dimuth Karunaratne, and few overs later dismissed Dhananjaya de Silva. Veteran Angelo Mathews was the lone resistance of this Sri Lankan innings, with a score of 43(85) on this pitch. Such a knock ended anticlimaticallywith an irresponsible shot off Jasprit Bumrah’s bowling, just before stumps. India are expected to win the Test very soon, and Sri Lanka need nothing short of a miracle to produce a contest from here.

Here’s a look at the stats from the Day-1 of the India-Sri Lanka Test at Bangalore.

400 – This is the 400th international match played by Rohit Sharma. He thus became the eighth Indian to achieve this landmark. He also became the third Indian to play 400 international matches in the 21st century, after MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.

250 – R Ashwin plays his 250th international match for India in this game. He took 648 wickets so far, which is by far the highest for an Indian in first 250 international matches of career. Second highest is Anil Kumble with 518 wickets.

50 – This is the 50th international match India played at Chinnaswamy Stadium across formats.

4 – Sixes hit by Shreyas Iyer in this innings, which is the highest by any player in Day-Night Tests. He overtook Nathan Lyon who hit three sixes against England, earlier this year. Before Shreyas, no other Indian smashed more than one six in a pink-ball Test innings.

4 – Shreyas Iyer became the fourth Indian to be dismissed stumped while batting in the nineties in Test cricket. The other three Indians are Dilip Vengsarkar (96) in 1987, Sachin Tendulkar (90) in 2001, and Virender Sehwag (99) in 2010.

92 – Shreyas Iyer scored 92 in India’s first innings, which is the second-highest score by an Indian in Day-Night Tests. The highest is 136 by Virat Kohli against Bangladesh in 2019.

30 – Total international sixes hit by Rohit Sharma at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. This is the joint-highest by an Indian at a single ground, tied with Sachin Tendulkar in Sharjah.

150.00 – Strike rate of Rishabh Pant, which is the second-highest by an Indian player in the first-innings of a Test match (min: 20 balls). The only Indian with a higher strike-rate was Shardul Thakur (158.33) against England last year.

Written By – Kaustubh Gudipati