Bangladesh vs Afghanistan: Taijul Islam surpasses Bishan Singh Bedi, Shakib Al Hasan in elite list

Bangladesh spinner Taijul Islam achieved a massive feat on Day 1 of their Test match against Afghanistan in Chittagong as he became the fourth fastest among Asian left-arm spinners to take 100 wickets in the longest format of the sport. Taijul claimed the milestone when he castled Ihsanullah Janat on Thursday. Taijul, who took 25 matches to achieve the feat, was behind the Indian trio of Pragyan Ojha (22), Vinoo Mankad (23) and Ravindra Jadeja (24) in the elite list. In the process, he surpassed Bishan Singh Bedi and compatriot Shakib Al Hasan.

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Earlier, Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan became the youngest player ever to captain a test team. Aged 20 years and 350 days when he walked out for the toss on the first day, Rashid broke a 15-year record held by former Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu, who was eight days older when he led his side against Sri Lanka in 2004.

Rashid was appointed Afghanistan’s captain across all three formats of the game in July after the team’s dismal performance at the 50-over World Cup, where they lost all nine of their group matches.

 

Fewest Tests for 100 wickets (by Asian left-arm spinners)
22 - Pragyan Ojha
23 - Vinoo Mankad
24 - Ravindra Jadeja
25 - Taijul Islam
28 - Bishan Singh Bedi/Dilip Doshi/Shakib Al Hasan#BanvAfg

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) September 5, 2019

The series of records did not stop there as Rahmat Shah became the first Afghanistan player to score a century in Test cricket. Rahmat scored 102 off 187 balls before being dismissed by Nayeem Hasan.

Afghanistan won the toss and chose to bat first in Chittagong. Rahmat came into the middle in the 13th over after the dismissal of opener Ihsanullah. He went on to put on a 120-run stand with former skipper Asghar Afghan. At the end of the first session, Rahmat was on 97. He finally crossed the coveted mark with a four off Nayeem Hassan. However, he went for a loose drive off the next ball and got a thick edge that was grabbed by Soumya Sarkar.

(With agency inputs)