Ravichandran Ashwin has revealed that the situation in the dressing room after two days of defeat was such that the leadership group discussed the possibility of India forfeiting their first innings of the Kanpur Test to force a result. Only 35 overs were bowled on day one before the heavens opened up and washed out the entire day 1 and day 2. And when the rain finally let up on the third day, the condition of the outfield was such that, despite their best efforts, the grounds staff were unable to get it going again. Therefore, India was pushed to the wall and had no choice but to go for the jugular on the fourth and fifth days when the game finally began.

After quickly dismissing Bangladesh for 235 on Monday, the thought of abandoning the innings crossed the minds of captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir, but the sapping heat of Kanpur did not allow the plan to materialize. However, whatever happened was in the best interest as Rohit and Yashasvi Jaiswal launched an all-out attack on the Bangladesh bowlers. India hit 285 for the loss of nine wickets before declaring their record-breaking innings by 52 runs, making the outcome of this Test match pretty much a foregone conclusion.

“We talked about giving up the inning, but the heat was so… these are tough conditions, right? To be able to sweat so much… I literally had to wear four t-shirts in a day and it still wasn’t good.” It was very tiring, especially for the fast bowlers, so bowling in a row was tiring, and even if we had got them for another 200 balls, that would mean spending five sessions on the road. So it would have been very difficult for the batters too. We thought we would bat and then try with the ball,” Ashwin told presenter Jio Cinema after India beat Bangladesh by seven wickets to register a 2-0 sweep.

“I wasn’t too pleased; Neither was Bumrah

That a few hours after batting, India explained that their bowlers had to prepare for a second wind on the fourth day, with Ashwin admitting that he and Jasprit Bumrah were not initially fans of the decision. But with captain Rohit leading the way, there was no way out given the carnage that was being wrought.

“I wasn’t too happy about the fact that I was going to be bowling again on the same day and neither was Bumrah, so that’s the starting point. But once you know you have to do it, of course you take ice baths, hot baths and then you start.” But I think what really stands out to me is the talking, but seeing the captain walk his talk follows – he didn’t play one ball with caution – then he just went away and played the first ball Sixth: If Rohit does that, you have no choice but to follow him “That’s a whole different topic,” added Ashwin added.