Legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar credited all-rounders Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for their "super" 195-run unbeaten partnership to rescue India from a crumbling situation on the opening day of the first Test against Bangladesh at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Thursday.
Ashwin scored 102 not out and Jadeja scored unbeaten 86 as the duo steadied India's innings to post 339/6 at stumps on the first day of the match at Chepauk. India were tottering at 144/6 at one stage after Bangladesh pacer Hasan Mahmud dismantled the hosts' top order as he took the scalps of Rohit Sharma (6), Shubman Gill (0), Virat Kohli (6) and Rishabh Pant (39) in the second session.
The wickets of Yashasvi Jaiswal (56) and KL Rahul (16) in the second session mounted India's struggle in the middle before Ashwin-Jadeja reestablished the supremacy of the home side.
Former India batter termed Ashwin and Jadeja for turning the game around with "all-round brilliance."
"From despair to domination! @ashwinravi99 and @imjadeja's knocks have turned the tide for India once again. This all-round brilliance is priceless. Super partnership boys," Tendulkar wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Speaking after play, Ashwin credited his partner for lifting his morales in the suffocating heat of Chennai.
"He was of real help, there was a point in time where I was really sweating and getting a bit tired, Jaddu noticed it quickly and guided me through that phase. Jaddu has been one of our best batters for our team in the last few years. Him being there, pretty solid and he was also very helpful in terms of telling me that we don't have to convert twos into threes which was really helpful for me," Ashwin said.
Ashwin termed it a "special feeling" after hitting his second Test century at Chepauk and revealed the hard work he had done before the series to hone his batting skills.
"Always a special feeling to play in front of the home crowd. This is a ground I completely love to play cricket in. It's given me a lot of wonderful memories. The last time I got a hundred, you were the coach Ravi bhai (Ravi Shastri). It does feel special. It helps that I have come back at the back of a T20 tournament (TNPL), worked quite a bit on my batting. Of course, I have always been wafting my bat around outside off-stump. Worked on a few things and on a surface like this with a bit of spice, if you're going after the ball, might as well go after it really hard like Rishabh does," he added.
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