Saha's versatility against spin, and Bangladesh's mixed-up fields

Taskin still not spot on
At the end of the day's play, most bowlers revisit what they did. On the first day Taskin was guilty of bowling a little too short; he was expected to learn from that and bowl fuller on day two. But that did not quite happen. Whenever he did bowl on a good length on the fifth-sixth stump line, he kept both Kohli and Rahane quiet. Unfortunately for Bangladesh, those few good balls had for company several short and wide balls. Test bowling on flat pitches is about discipline: having one plan and the field to back it up.

Not quite right outside off
First Taskin, then Kamrul Islam tried bowling the outside-off line but couldn't do it well for two reasons. Firstly, the length becomes critical while executing this plan: you must bowl full, forcing the batsman to play on the front foot. The Bangladesh seamers were too short and lacked control. Secondly, you have to have the field to support the plan, which means having six or seven fielders on the off side. But Mushfiqur chose to keep only five fielders on the off side.

The puff of dust
The cracks opened a little bit on the pitch, and the first signs of deterioration appeared. Taijul Islam's deliveries took a piece off the pitch on a couple of occasions, including the ball that dismissed Ajinkya Rahane. The issue with the pitch exploding once in a while is that it alters your response against normal deliveries too. Ever since the first ball that disturbed the surface, India's batsmen showed caution.

Captaincy in the spotlight again
While in the first half of the day Mushfiqur was quick to put out a defensive field, he chose to attack a little more when India had 550 on the board. For a well-set Wriddhiman Saha, he didn't make any attempt to plug the hole at short fine leg for the sweeps and, also, the fielder at slip never moved back to short third man, allowing Saha the chance to collect runs through late-cuts. Saha's wagon wheel against spin highlights his preference for these two areas.

Saha's spin advantage
Saha has got a very effective way of handling spin. He isn't afraid to step out and hit either along the ground or over the top, has three variations of the sweep shot, and plays the square cut well. The shot that stands out is the sweep, for that simply doesn't allow the bowler to settle. He chooses his variation of the sweep shot depending on the line and length: a really full ball within the stumps is paddled fine, a slightly shorter ball is conventionally swept towards long leg, and he picks deliveries from outside off to go over the midwicket fielder.

Bhuvneshwar's angles
Bhuvneshwar Kumar began over the stumps. He got the ball to come into and go away from the left-hand batsmen. Then the umpire had a word with Bhuvneshwar about running on the pitch and that prompted him to go around the stumps. Kapil Dev, who was on commentary at the time, was of the opinion that as a swing bowler, there's more merit in staying over the stumps for a couple of reasons. One, the moment you bring the ball back in, the chances of getting a leg-before dismissal increases. And two, the natural angle from over the wicket will keep the batsman guessing.