Rohit Sharma's Surprising Decision At Toss Makes Him 1st Indian Captain In 60 Years To...

The second Test of the ongoing two-match Test series between India and Bangladesh is currently underway at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. After a delayed start due to wet outfield, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss to field first on Friday (September 27).

Rohit’s decision to invite Bangladesh to bat first is the first time in 60 years that any captain has opted to field first after winning the toss at Green Park Stadium. The last time a captain (MAK Pataudi) opted to field first in Kanpur was during the India-England Test in 1964.

Also, it is the first time in nine years that India has opted to field in a Test match played in front of home fans. The last occasion when India opted to field first in a Test in India was against South Africa in Bengaluru (2015).

India hasn’t made any changes to the playing XI for the second Test in Kanpur, and it also helped Rohit become the first Indian captain in five years to play with the same team in back-to-back matches. The last time India played with the same side in two straight matches was during the India-Bangladesh Test series in November 2019, which India won by a 2-0 margin under Virat Kohli’s leadership.

Since 2019, apart from Rohit and Virat, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, and Jasprit Bumrah have served as India’s captain in Tests.

Rohit’s decision to bowl first is also the first instance of teams opting to field first in back-to-back Tests in India. The only other series where it happened twice came in the three-match series between India and Sri Lanka in 1997.

2 changes for Bangladesh

While India has decided to play with the same team that took the field in Chennai last week, Bangladesh made two changes to its playing XI. In place of pacers Taskin Ahmed and Nahid Rana, spinner Taijul Islam and right-arm medium pacer Khaled Ahmed are playing.

Playing XIs

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

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