Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto won the toss and decided for the team to bowl first. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma also expressed his desire to wanting to bowl first in the so called ‘challenging situations’. Both teams have gone with three the strategy of three seamers in the team.
“I’ll like to bowl first. There’s moisture and we want to make use of it. Pitch looks hard. The first session will be very good for the seamers. This is a new series. It’s a good mixture of experience and youth. We go with three seamers,” Shanto said after winning the toss.
Rohit went with three seamers and two spinners. All-rounder Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav could not find a spot in this match. Yash Dayal is also yet to make a debut in Tests, along with head coach Gautam Gambhir mentioning in the pre-match conference that young players like Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel left open spaces for senior players like KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant.
“I would have done that as well (bowl first). Little soft, the pitch. It’s going to be challenging conditions. We have prepared well, so we should back our potential and play the way we know. Looking at the 10 Test matches, every match is important. But we want to focus on what lies in front of us. We came here a week back, we had a good prep leading up to this one. We feel confident. Three seamers and two spinners – Bumrah, Akash Deep, Siraj, Ashwin and Jadeja,” Rohit said at the coin toss.
🚨 Toss Update from Chennai
Bangladesh have elected to bowl against the @ImRo45-led #TeamIndia in the first #INDvBAN Test!
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— BCCI (@BCCI) September 19, 2024
