It would be an underplaying act of the highest order to say that India batter Shreyas Iyer was a bit fortunate during the first day of the first Test match against Bangladesh at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium today.
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Regardless of Iyer playing well to share a rescuing 149-run fifth-wicket partnership alongside vice-captain Cheteshwar Pujara (90), his fourth Test half-century would’ve been easily interrupted had things not went his way not once but thrice.
Iyer hadn’t even completed a half-century when Bangladesh wicket-keeper Nurul Hasan dropped him behind the wickets. Having crossed the 50-run mark, Iyer was once again dropped by Bangladesh pacer Ebadot Hossain when he tried to play a big shot off all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz.
Iyer’s biggest encounter with fortune on Day 1 happened in the 84th over when he survived in spite of getting bowled. It all happened on the penultimate delivery of the over when Iyer missed a low-bounce Hossain delivery but continued to bat as the ball’s contact with the stumps wasn’t strong enough to dislodge the bails.
While the bails had lit up pretty visibly after the ball touched the stumps, Iyer continued to ride his luck because at least one of the bails has to completely dislodge from the stumps for a batter to be considered bowled. Perhaps acknowledging the same, Iyer was seen sharing a laugh about the incident with Pujara as the hosts couldn’t believe their eyes.
Aakash Chopra at odds with Shreyas Iyer reprieve on Day 1 of Chattogram Test
Former India batter Aakash Chopra was quick to take to social media platform Twitter to express displeasure with the rule around a bail needing to fall completely for a batter to be bowled and rightly so.
It is quite a pity for a bowler, who manages to both beat the batter and make the ball touch the stumps, to not get a wicket just because a bail hasn’t completely fallen down.
For the unversed, modern-day zing bails (bails which light up when the ball touches the stumps) are comparatively heavier than conventional wooden bails. As a result, there have been so many instances across Test cricket, Pakistan Super League, Ranji Trophy etc. of bails not falling even if the ball has touched the stumps.
Australia batter David Warner has survived such instances in both Tests and ODIs. Other high-profile batters to have benefited from this rule are Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Dimuth Karunaratne, Quinton de Kock, Mahendra Singh Dhoni etc.
Iyer, 28, is 18 runs short of a second Test century. With India not entirely in a commanding position on the back of scoring 278/6 in 90 overs today, Iyer would be looking to both complete an individual milestone and strengthen India’s first-innings total tomorrow especially in the presence of all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin.
