To win, Bangladesh will have to rewrite Test history
Despite securing a 227-run lead in the first innings, India chose not to enforce the follow-on. Instead, the home side came out to bat in their second innings.
While the start wasn’t ideal, the hosts dominated thanks to centuries from Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant. India declared their second innings at 287 for 4, setting Bangladesh a monumental target of 515 runs. To achieve this, Nazmul Hossain Shanto’s team will need to rewrite Test history.
In the 147-year-long history of Test cricket, no team has ever successfully chased such a large target. Only four teams have managed to chase down over 400 runs. At the top of the list is West Indies, who achieved the highest successful run chase in Test history. In 2003, Brian Lara’s team chased down 418 runs set by Australia in Antigua. This remains the highest successful run chase in Test cricket.
South Africa comes second on this list, having chased down 414 runs against Australia in Perth in 2008. India’s third-place chase dates back 48 years to 1976, when Bishan Singh Bedi’s side chased down 406 runs in Port of Spain during a tour of the West Indies. The only other team to chase more than 400 runs is Australia. In 1948, 76 years ago, they chased 404 runs against England at Headingley.
In the 24 years since their debut, Bangladesh has played 144 Tests (excluding the ongoing one) and won 21. Of these victories, they have successfully chased targets in seven matches. However, Bangladesh has never successfully chased more than 300 runs. Their highest successful chase is 217 runs, which came during the second Test of the 2009 West Indies tour under the leadership of Shakib Al Hasan. On that occasion, Bangladesh’s target was 215 runs.
Their second-highest successful chase is 191 runs, which came during their historic win over Sri Lanka in Colombo during their 100th Test in 2017. Bangladesh’s first successful chase occurred in 2014 when they beat Zimbabwe in Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, chasing down a target of 101 runs. Bangladesh’s other successful chases are: 185/4, 138/3, 42/2, and 30/0.
