A perceived mistake

Even a gloomy day in Fatullah, in terms of the weather, couldn't dampen the brilliant strokeplay from India's openers. Both Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay made the most of the flat batting track and led India to a dominant 239 for no loss at the end of Day One.

The way Dhawan drove deliveries to the boundary gave the impression that the visitors were looking to score as many runs as possible in a bid to force a win.

However, according to Ravichandran Ashwin, there wasn't any such plan.

"I think that's just the way our openers bat. Shikhar plays his game and Vijay settles into his game. So that's pretty much what happened today, there was no conscious effort in terms of saying, 'We have to do this'. But there is a good sense of everyone trying to express themselves in the team and we are looking to play with a lot of freedom," said Ashwin at the post-day press conference in Fatullah yesterday.

"Hopefully that is being expressed out on the field. There is no reason why we play a particular combination, it's just about maintaining consistency from where we left off in Sydney," he added.

While India's plan seemed to work flawlessly, the hosts were caught in a rut, having included just one specialist pacer in the side. When asked about Bangladesh's tactic Ashwin said, "I think it's an individual's perception. They probably saw the wicket in the way they wanted to see it and we are seeing it differently. We've got bowlers that we believe can exploit this track with 140-plus speeds, especially if there is some reverse swing later on in the game.

"It's also about how the bowlers are bowling and our bowlers have been pretty good. They have learned a lot over the last six months or so in Australia. We are backing ourselves and looking to play the best possible bowlers we have," he added.