As of September 19, India and Bangladesh are set to play their first Test in Chennai. Thus, here is a quick recap about the historical occasion when eleven Bangladeshi cricketers debuted in their test match against India.
After Bangladesh’s triumph in the 1997 ICC Trophy, they qualified for the 1999 ODI World Cup where they beat Scotland in their opening match.
Bangladesh also defeated Pakistan by a margin of 62 runs at Northampton on May 31 during the competition.
This included the establishment of domestic cricket infrastructure including first-class cricket that provided the foundation for talent development and preparation for Test cricket.
Other Test-playing nations such as India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka strongly supported Bangladesh because they saw it as an opportunity to promote cricket in South Asia.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) aimed at spreading the game beyond its traditional boundaries and into new regions. In line with this vision was granting Bangladesh full test status so as to globalise the sport of cricket. Consequently, these factors combined led to ICC giving them full test status hence making them become tenth nation ever to play test matches.
For his maiden Test series as Indian captain also Sourav Ganguly led his team against hosts Bangladesh which also marked his first Test as Indian skipper at Bangalore on November 10-14, 2000 when he was aged only twenty-eight years and one hundred twenty-five days old this made him youngest captain after Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi in November 1964
Shiv Sunder Das along with wicket-keeper Saba Karim and left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan were also debutants for India in that match.
In their inaugural test match Bangladesh put up some good performance if not outstanding but Aminul Islam’s century became country’s first Test centurion who helped them reach at least four hundreds while Sunil Joshi took five wickets for visitors.
While Ganguly was the highest scorer who made 84 runs and Joshi was top contributor from India with his unbeaten 92.
Bangladesh skipper Naimur Rahman had figures of six-wicket for sixty-nine with his off-spinners in India’s response of four hundred twenty nine.
However, Bangladesh were bowled out for just 91 runs in their second innings, giving the Indian team a target of only 63 which they chased down losing one wicket on the Fourth day of the Test match.
India played its first-ever Day-Night Test against Bangladesh at Kolkata in November 2019.
India has won eleven of thirteen test matches against Bangladesh till now while two ended as draws. However, Bangladesh is still to open an account against India in Tests.
