India opted to retain the same XI from the Chennai Test in Kanpur, keeping out Kuldeep Yadav and retaining a three-seamer, two-spinner attack against Bangladesh.
Ahead of the Kanpur Test, there was an expectation that India would go for an attack with three spinners. The Kanpur Test, with its black soil, was expected to have lower bounce and deteriorate substantially over the course of the five days. With Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel in their squad, India were expected to bring in one of them for the second Test, to link up with R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
Historically, the Green Park stadium has seen spinners have fruitful outings, with four out of the top five wicket-takers being spinners, although the list is led by Kapil Dev.
Why not Kuldeep Yadav?
Kuldeep Yadav, who plays for Uttar Pradesh, was expected to feature in a "home" Test at Kanpur. He hasn't played a Test match here so far, but is supposed to know the Green Park surface well.
Kuldeep's coach Kapil Pandey, speaking to Sportstar ahead of the Test, said: “When you have three proven spinners, you should play all of them. The Green Park is his home ground and he knows the conditions very well, so he will do even better here. If they finally give Kuldeep a chance, Bangladesh will be under more pressure.”
However, a closer inspection of the surface and the conditions revealed that it might not be as similar to what the Green Park traditionally offers.
In the pitch report, Murali Karthik noted that the pitch here has been traditionally "slow and low", but pointed out that the surface had enough straw-coloured grass and looked 'tufty and knotty", suggesting movement further assisted by the overcast conditions.
India retain same XI
While Bangladesh decided to make two changes, featuring three spinners and two quicks in their XI, India retained the same team. The toss was delayed due to overnight rain and a wet outfield in the morning, tempting Rohit Sharma to opt to bowl first. Interestingly, it's the first time in 60 years that a team has won the toss and opted to bowl first at the Green Park stadium.
"The conditions as well, and there's a little softness in the pitch," Rohit said at the toss. "We want to make early inroads, gives our seamers the option to go hard at them. There's a little bit of grass on it from a usual Kanpur pitch, so we thought it would be best to give our bowlers a better chance upfront".
Given the different look of the Kanpur surface, and the overcast conditions, India decided to stick with the same XI. R Ashwin came as early as the eighth over, but it was Akash Deep who snared the first two wickets.
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