Tea Bangladesh 149 and 56 for 0 (Zakir 32*, Shadman 21*) need 459 runs to beat India 376 and 287 for 4 dec (Gill 119*, Pant 109) lead by 432 runs
With the pitch not yet breaking up and the average seam movement dying down from 1.3 degrees on day one to 0.4 degrees on day three, these were the best batting conditions of the match. Despite India’s attacking approach to set up the declaration, Bangladesh could draw just 16 false responses in 41 overs on day three, which went for 206 runs. A good sign for them was that the flatness continued: they themselves made just 17 errors in the 13 overs they batted before tea.
Given the conditions, 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 they jumped out of the crease to hit sixes. Gill hit Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who bowled 25 out of the 64 second-innings overs, for four of them to reach 28 sixes in just his 26th Test. Pant fancied the left-arm spin of Shakib Al Hasan and hit four sixes of his own to go up to 59 in just 34 Tests, the seventh-highest for India. India have now hit 85 sixes in 2024, only five short of breaking the record for most sixes by a team in a calendar year.
It was what the duo did outside the sixes that was more impressive. 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 they were afforded 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 ten 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.
Post lunch, Pant brought out his trademark flick behind square both off the quicks and the spinners to get to his hundred in just 118 balls. Gill went there more calmly, in 161 balls, and KL Rahul played a few classy inside-out drives before the declaration left Bangladesh an hour to bat till tea.
Zakir Hasan came out full of intent, driving both off the front and the back foot and also dismissing Mohammed Siraj for a flicked six. With the ball not doing much, the two stayed on the lookout for runs, punishing every error in length. Akash Deep and R Ashwin, though, tested them more without success.
