Gill and Pant dominate Bangladesh in wicketless morning session

India finished their first innings at 376 for the loss of 3 wickets, with Gill scoring an unbeaten 86 and Pant contributing 82 runs. This gives India a healthy lead of 432 runs over Bangladesh, who were bowled out for 149 in their first innings.

Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant got to their half-centuries as India moved closer to batting Bangladesh out of the Test with a wicketless first session on day three in Chennai. The ease with which India batted was apparent from how the average seam movement had died down from 1.3 degrees on day one to 0.4 degrees on day three; despite bowling well, Bangladesh could draw only 13 false responses in the whole session. They will only hope such flatness remains for when their turn to chase an inevitable mountain of runs arrives.

Gill and Pant, both aggressive batters given to counterattacking, acknowledged that only they could get themselves out, and put their heads down for big knocks. They kept respecting good balls, and once in while jumped out of the crease to hit sixes. Gill hit Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who bowled from one end almost throughout the session, for three of them to reach 27 sixes in his 26th Test; Pant went up to 58 in just 34 Tests, but also his first in nearly two years.

Unlike Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma on the third evening, who just tried to impose themselves on the bowling, these two began the day respecting the bowling and that they could afford to defend for a while without worrying about edges and close-in fielders. Only in the seventh over of the day did someone try to force the issue, and Gill did that beautifully with the two sixes over wide long-on.

Pant, extra conscious to not give it away after a soft dismissal in the first innings, took even more time before he went manufacturing shots. - none better than the ramp-sweep off Hasan Mahmud for a six over fine leg 10 minutes before lunch.

Gill joined in the acceleration before lunch, suggesting the declaration might come sooner rather than later. With that push for quicker runs came a skier from Pant seven minutes before the break, but captain Najmul Hossain Shanto put it down. Pant still hit two fours in the final over before the break, throwing down the gauntlet for the race to the hundred.