By winning the first test played against Bangladesh in Chennai, Team India made many records, while also maintaining the streak of winning the series at home for the last 12 years. With this, Rohit Sharma has registered a record in his name which no Indian has been able to achieve till date. Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly had got a chance to do this once during their captaincy tenure, but they also missed it. This feat is of winning the match by batting first at home after the opposition won the toss.
In the Chennai Test, Bangladesh captain Nazmul Hussain Shanto invited India to bat first after winning the toss. Team India scored 387 runs on the board on the basis of Ashwin’s century. In response, the visiting team collapsed at 149 runs in the first innings. India got a lead of 227 runs in the first innings and Team India declared the second innings at 287 runs. India had set a target of 515 runs for Bangladesh to win, in response to which the visiting team collapsed at 234 runs. India won this match by 280 runs.
This is the first time in the history of Indian Test cricket that the opposition team won the toss while playing at home and India won the match by batting first. Earlier, 8 times the opposition captains had invited India to bat first at home, but the team could not register a win even once. India lost 2 times during this period, while 6 matches were drawn. The last time the Sri Lankan captain invited India to bat first at home was in 2017. India played that match a draw under Kohli’s captaincy. Whereas this happened in 2001 under Ganguly’s captaincy and during that time the team lost to Australia.
India’s home Test matches when opposition asked them to bat first
1969 – Against Australia, Loss
1978 – Against West Indies, Draw
1982 – Against England, Draw
1987 – Against Pakistan, Draw
1997 – Against Sri Lanka, Draw
1999 – Against New Zealand, Draw
2001 – Against Australia, lost
2017 – Against Sri Lanka, Draw
2024 – Draw against Bangladesh*