Kanpur, India

Former India cricketer Ajay Jadeja called out the decision to bowl first by India skipper Rohit Sharma and coach Gautam Gambhir in the second Test against Bangladesh which started Friday (Sep 27). Rohit put the visitors into bat in the overcast conditions, hoping the bowlers will take advantage.

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“The conditions are suitable for batting despite Bangladesh losing two wickets. The best thing would have been to bat first after winning the toss, but India missed the trick.

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“They (Rohit and Gautam Gambhir) made a mistake, but they will not accept it. Look at the field placements. The captain also knows that he read the pitch and conditions wrong,” Jadeja said while speaking on JioCinema.

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This is also the first time in nine years that India have elected to bowl first after winning the toss at home. The last time it was Virat Kohli who elected to bowl first after winning the toss against South Africa in Bengaluru in 2015.

The first day, however, was marred by rain as only 35 overs were bowled before early stumps were called.

Bangladesh scored 107/3 in the day with pacer Akash Deep taking two of those wickets and spinner Rai Ashwin took the third one - his 420th wicket in Asia.

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Both the teams have read the pitch differently as suggested by their playing XI selection. India are unchanged from the first Test in Chennai where they played three pacers in Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep. 

Bangladesh, on the other hand, are playing three spinners in the second Test as opposed to two in the first Test.

The two-match series, however, is 1-0 in favour of India after they won the Chennai Test by 280 runs in nearly three and a half days.