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Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar hailed Rohit Sharma and company's ability to exert the same dominance on sporting pitches as much as on a favored rank turner. India had cultivated a reputation of yielding wins by throwing the spinners on a rank turner surface on home soil.
However, the recently concluded first Test against Bangladesh at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai marked the first clash in five years where India played with only two spinners. The red-soil track assisted the seamers, urging the hosts to play Akash Deep instead of either Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel.
The decision paid off as the pacers ran riot to bundle out Bangladesh for just 149 in the first innings. India went on to win the contest comfortably by 280 runs.
"India are beating strong sides at home. Bangladesh was going to be a different proposition because I believe that India had a real challenge when it came to the kind of players Bangladesh have, the kind of spinners they have," Manjrekar said on ESPN Cricinfo.
So, rank turners, which has been India's MO (modus operandi) to win matches at home cannot be give. But, despite that, what really stood out, and what I think the coach and the captain will be happy about is that it was not a rank turner, but the dominance by India was the same. They have got these batters, these excellent slip catchers, some great seam bowlers and spinners," Manjrekar added.
The win prolongs India's unbeaten streak at home when it comes to Test cricket. The Men in Blue last lost a Test series on home soil back in 2012 against England.
"We had a good leadup to the Test match and we got the result we wanted" - India captain Rohit Sharma
India chipped in with a near-perfect display to kickstart their home season. The side are scheduled to play one more match against Bangladesh, and a three-match series against New Zealand, before the all-important Border-Gavaskar series away from home.
"I thought it was a great result looking at what lies ahead for us. Yes we've been playing after a long time but you're never out of cricket, you are in touch with cricket. We had a good leadup to the Test match and we got the result we wanted," Team India skipper Rohit Sharma said during the post-match presentation.
The second Test between India and Bangladesh is scheduled to begin from September 27 onwards in Kanpur.
