Bangladesh batting coach David Hemp "not aware" of Shakib Al Hasan's injury

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], September 21 (ANI): Bangladesh batting coach David Hemp on Saturday confirmed that he is "not aware" of star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan's injury. In the first Test match between India and Bangladesh, the all-rounder bowled seven overs on day three after skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto brought him into the attack, but was hit by Rishabh Pant for six fours and two sixes in a poor spell.

This year has been tough for the 37-year-old, having scored just 295 runs in 18 innings across all formats at an average of 19.66, with one fifty. He has also taken just 18 wickets at an average of 39.88 with the best figures of 4/35. Murali Karthik, handling the broadcasting duties in the match, was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo that Hasan has had a finger surgery on his bowling finger.

"Having seen him and known him for such a long period of time, I did go up to him and ask the reason why he has not bowled enough. And the thing which he said to me is something I completely resonate with. He has had a finger surgery on his bowling finger, which is the point of his finger of his left hand. It is swollen, it is rigid, there is no movement, no suppleness to it. So he feels he is not getting any feeling out of it. As a spinner you need the feeling. Also he is having issues with his shoulder so it is a combination of both and it's tough to bowl in Test cricket where you need that feel as a spinner," said Karthik.

Speaking at the post-day press conference, David Hemp said, "No, not aware of that at all, sorry." Hemp said that the pitch at the MA Chidambaram Stadium is good in terms of batting. "In terms of days to bat, it's still a good wicket. Today, we've seen that (Ravichandran) Ashwin obviously got a couple of balls to bounce quite significantly. But if you still miss, you can still score. So for us tomorrow, it's still a reasonable surface," he added.

The Bangladesh batting coach added that it's all about scoring runs. "The difference with the second (innings) is we got people that got in, so they faced balls. It's all about scoring runs, and you're looking to score, so that hasn't changed," he further added.

At the end of day three, Bangladesh were 158/4, with skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto (51*) and Shakib Al Hasan (5*) unbeaten. Bangladesh started the post-Tea session at 56/0 with Shadman Islam (21) and Zakir Hasan (32) unbeaten on the crease.

Jasprit Bumrah struck early for India in the session, removing Zakir for 33 (47 balls). The rest three wickets were picked by Ravichandran Ashwin as he dismissed Shadman Islam (35), Mominul Haque (13), and Mushfiqur Rahim (13). The second session of Day three of the Chennai Test resumed with India at 205/3 with Rishabh Pant (82*) and Shubman Gill (86*) unbeaten on the crease. India now have a lead of 432 runs.

Pant went on to score a century on his comeback innings in the longest format of the game. On the other hand, Gill played an unbeaten knock of 119 runs from 176 balls, which was laced with 10 boundaries and four maximums. Middle-order batter KL Rahul also played a valuable knock of unbeaten 22 runs in 19 balls, which included four boundaries. India declared their innings when the team score was 287 runs for the loss of four wickets. They set a target of 515 runs for the visitors in order to win the first match of the series. (ANI)