“It’s an old Chennai surface with a bit of bounce and carry. The red soil pitch allows you to play a few shots if you are willing to just get in line and give it a bit of a tonk when there’s width. He (Jadeja) was of real help, there was a point in time when I was really sweating and getting a bit tired, Jaddu noticed it quickly and guided me through that phase. Jaddu has been one of our best batters for our team in the last few years. Him being there, pretty solid and he was also very helpful in terms of telling me that we don’t have to convert twos into threes which was really helpful for me,” assessed Ashwin, who is making his 101st Test appearance.

The Bangladesh bowlers had earlier troubled India’s top order. Hasan Mahmud was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4 for 58. The visitors’ new-ball pair of Taskin Ahmed and Hasan exploited the conditions to dismiss Jaiswal and Sharma, while Hasan also took out Gill and Kohli in quick succession.

Kohli’s dismissal was particularly surprising, highlighting his lack of recent red-ball match practice.

Jaiswal’s 56 and Pant’s 39 were vital contributions, though Pant’s dismissal was a result of poor shot selection. Despite the early chaos, Jaiswal steadied the ship before falling.

Looking ahead to the second day, Ashwin expects the pitch to assist the pacers as it dries out. “It’s a typical, old-fashioned Chennai pitch where overspin will fetch a bit of bounce. The wicket will start doing its tricks much later in the game. There’s enough in it for the quicks, good carry, good bounce if we present the seam nice and hard. The new ball will do a bit, there’ll be some help for the bowlers, we’ll have to start afresh tomorrow. There’s a bit in the pitch, it’s still damp underneath, so hopefully as it dries out, it quickens up,” said Ashwin.

Scoreboard:

India 1st Innings: Jaiswal c Islam b Rana 56, Sharma c Shanto b Mahmud 6, Gill c Das b Mahmud 0, Kohli c Das b Mahmud 6, Pant c Das b Mahmud 39, Rahul c Hasan b Mehidy 16, Jadeja batting 86, Ashwin batting 102; Extras: (B-18, LB-5, NB-4, W-1) 28; Total: (6 wkts, 80 ovrs) 339; FoW: 1-14, 2-28, 3-34, 4-96, 5-144, 6-144; Bowling: Taskin 15-1-47-0, Mahmud 18-4-58-4, Rana 17-2-80-1, Mehidy 21-2-77-1, Shakib 8-0-50-0, Haque 1-0-4-0.