'Poor Nauman had to bowl Smith from outside leg stump': Former PAK captain compares Karachi pitch with Bengaluru wicket

India went on to bundle out Sri Lanka for just 109 on the second day with Jasprit Bumrah taking his eighth Test fifer.

The opening day of the pink-ball Test between India and Sri Lanka saw the fall of 16 wickets with nine of them taken by spinners. The pink ball didn't aid swing much under the afternoon sun but the wicket offered plenty to spin bowlers, who used the sharp turn to make life tough for Indians, who opted to bat first after winning the toss.

Snippets from Bengaluru and Karachi Test (AP)

Left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya (3/94) kept the Indian batters guessing before Rishabh Pant's counter-attacking 39 and Shreyas Iyer's defining 92 helped India post a decent 252 in the first innings. Left-arm spinner Praveen Jayawickrama also plucked three wickets while conceding 81.

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The pink ball later assisted the Indian bowlers, who picked up wickets at regular intervals to leave Sri Lanka reeling at 86 for six, trailing by 166 runs, at the end of a riveting first day in Bengaluru. Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt underlined the conditions being favourable to the bowlers as he compared the wicket to that of the Karachi strip, which is currently hosting the second Test between Pakistan and Australia. The Rawalpindi Test was a draw and the wicket was also rated ‘below average’.

"In India, the bowlers are getting enough help from the pitch. Due to this, the batters have had to adjust their game in such a way that they should score as many runs as possible since there will be one good delivery that will get them out," said Butt on his YouTube channel.

"We don't have any such option for our bowlers. Poor Nauman Ali had to once again bowl Steve Smith from outside leg-stump as he got him out in the last Test. Even Sajid was on many times pitching the ball outside leg-stump to Khawaja. This takes LBW out of the equation and you just hope that the batter makes some mistakes. This is not attractive cricket," he further added.

Butt further heaped praise on Iyer, who continued his rich vein of form and smashed 10 fours and four sixes before he became the last wicket to fall, stumped eight runs short of a second Test century.

"Shreyas Iyer played a really good innings and is a compact player. I read somewhere that he has a first-class strike rate of 80-plus, which is very difficult to maintain consistently. Before him, Pant scored a quickfire 30-odd. These two have given India a huge advantage," said Butt.

India went on to bundle out Sri Lanka for just 109 on the second day with Bumrah taking his eighth Test fifer. Ashwin and Mohammed Shami snared two wickets each while Axar Patel added one under his belt.