India vs Bangladesh 2019: Combined XI from the Test series

Cheteshwar Pujara

It was a series where Cheteshwar Pujara was hardly noticed. All the limelight was on the Indian pacers and the two centurions in the series. But Pujara had a decent series himself. After scoring a couple of fifties in the three Tests against South Africa, the Saurashtra lad backed it up with a couple more in as many innings against Bangladesh.

Pujara was in early both times he batted in this series. 14/1 and 26/1 were the stages when he came out to bat and he looked in good touch. He was timing the ball well and seemed to be scoring runs at a fair clip as well. In fact, in the first game, he even outscored Mayank Agarwal at one point.

The Indian No. 3 shared good stands with Agarwal in the first game and Virat Kohli in the second to put India in dominant positions. However, he couldn’t capitalize on the starts he got and make big tons. Pujara got scores of 54 and 55 in the two Tests.

Virat Kohli (C)

There is barely any XI that looks complete without Virat Kohli. The Indian skipper invariably makes it to almost every combined XI. However, much to the shock and disappointment of the Indore crowd, Kohli got a duck in the first game.

But he more than made up in the second game. Under testing conditions with the pink ball, Kohli strode out and registered yet another Test century. He walked the talk about the pink ball and showed everyone how to adjust and adapt in different conditions. The Indian captain scored a fine 136 which helped India get to 347 in reply to Bangladesh’s 106.

He became India’s first centurion in day-night Test cricket. It was also his 27^th ton in Test cricket and 70^th overall in international cricket, which is the third-most (only behind Ricky Ponting – 71 and Sachin Tendulkar – 100).