Aggressive India up the intent meter in Kanpur

Despite losing close to three days of play to bad weather, India still seemed unfazed about forcing a result as they produced an action-packed post-lunch session on day four of the second Test against Bangladesh in Kanpur.

India's bowlers led by Jasprit Bumrah (3-50) ticked the first box in the afternoon session by restricting Bangladesh to a below-par total. India's batters then raced away at a phenomenal scoring rate of close to nine-runs-per-over. The visitors could only add 28 runs after lunch as Bumrah sliced through the tail. Mominul Haque (107*) remained unbeaten as he fought a lone battle through the innings.

For most part of the opening day, Bumrah seemed strangely off-colour but today, he was back to his best. Castling Mushfiqur Rahim in the morning session with a nip-backer was the start and the pacer breathed fire against Bangladesh's tail, knocking over Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam. Mohammed Siraj got rid of Hasan Mahmud while Ravindra Jadeja wrapped up the innings by getting Khaled Ahmed with a return catch. The all-rounder thereby brought up his 300th Test scalp, getting into an elite list of players with the double of 3000 Test runs and 300 wickets.

While the bowlers did an efficient job, the best part of the session for India was yet to come. Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal provided a blistering start that would even put T20 powerplays to shame as shots were fired from first over. Jaiswal started with three boundaries while Rohit struck two sixes in the next over to set the tone. India raced to 50 in just three overs, the fastest-ever in Test history, and while Rohit perished for the team's cause, Jaiswal carried on. The left-hander blasted his fifty off just 31 balls, fastest against Bangladesh by any player and joint third fastest for India in the format. The team 100 also came up in the 11th over, another all-time record.

The template was clear, India were going with an ultra-aggressive approach to rack up as many runs as possible on the fourth day. Jaiswal (72 off 51) kept going until he played a shot too many but Shubman Gill (37*) looked in fluent touch and India strengthened their intentions by promoting Rishabh Pant to no.4. A minimum of 40 overs remain to be bowled in the day and if India can keep going at this freak pace, a handy lead is in the offing.

Brief scores: Bangladesh 233 (Mominul Haque 107*; Jasprit Bumrah 3-50, Akash Deep 2-43) lead India 138/2 (Yashasvi Jaiswal 72, Shubman Gill 37*) by 95 runs