'Ashwin Knew: Karthik Dissects India Star's Dismissal of Bangladesh Captain, Remarks 'He Did Set Him Up But...''

Update: R Ashwin continues to dominate the ongoing India vs Bangladesh two-match Test series. After being named Player of the Match in the first Test in Chennai, the veteran spinner has carried that momentum into the current Kanpur fixture.

Day 1 of the ongoing second Test saw only 35 overs as play got called off due to rain. Bangladesh will resume on Day 2 from 107/3, with Mominul Haque (40*) and Mushfiqur Rahim (6*) remaining unbeaten.

Ashwin was key for India on Day 1, getting the crucial wicket of captain Najmul Hossain Shanto. The 38-year-old sent a full delivery, and in the middle, with the angle coming into the left-hander. Najmul put his front leg out, and tried to direct it away with a straight bat. But there was no turn on offer, and the ball skidded in and hit his front pad. Ashwin and his teammates let out a huge LBW appeal and up went the finger. UltraEdge showed that there was no bat involved and ball tracking confirmed all three reds, with Bangladesh also losing a review.

When asked if Ashwin set-up Najmul for his dismissal, former India player Dinesh Karthik came up with an excellent analysis. Speaking on Cricbuzz, he said, "In Kanpur, one thing you will get is low bounce. So Ashwin as a bowler against left-handers knows, a majority of his wickets will come the moment the batter looks to play for the off spin and the one that goes straight and hits the pad is always in the picture."

Speaking about Ashwin's spell vs Najmul, he continued, "He had bowled a few balls to Najmul. He realized that Najmul is looking to score runs of him. He knew at the back of his mind, he was going to get him out playing either of two shots; either the sweep and he misses it, or defence, where he plays for the turn and he misses it. It became the latter and hence got the wicket."

"He did set him up but not too much. It wasn't a spell where he was bowling and set him up too much. He was just hitting the length and hoping that one ball will just skid through and that ball had that effect on the batter, where it just kind of pitched, probably just hit the leather of the ball and just skid through, and he played for the turn a bit and he missed it completely. I said it on air as well, there was a definition of plumb in lbw, that is the one that umpires need to look at," he added.

It is expected to rain on Day 2 too, and a thunderstorm has also been predicted by Accuweather. The temperature will be around 31 degrees Celsius when the match resumes, with 80 percent chance of precipitation.