Bangladesh vs India: Three essential lessons from the second game and Test series between India and Bangladesh

It required some admirable rearguard action from both Shreyas Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin to turn the game on its head as, after the first hour of play on Day 4, it was Bangladesh who looked on course for victory.

Nevertheless, there were a few important lessons for the Indian team management in the game's aftermath. 

So, here are three key takeaways from the second and final Test of the series between Bangladesh and India:

Mehidy Hasan shows skill & grit to be an all-format player – One of, if not the key reasons why India lost out in the three-match ODI series before the Tests was due to the heroics of Mehidy Hasan with the bat. In the second Test, Hasan's tricky off-spin meant he nearly cost India the game with the ball. 

Had it not been for some excellent batting by Shreyas and Ashwin, Mehidy could have added to his five-wicket haul and taken his team to another massive victory. 

In the end, that did not happen, but it should not take away from the fact that Hasan has proved beyond all doubt that he is a star and that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) were right to back him as long as they did. He should, all things permitting, be a squad regular across formats soon enough. 

India's top order was a big concern – If the first Test saw India's top order generally get among the runs, the second one was a lot more on the wrong side in the sense that in more challenging conditions, the full order generally left too much to do for the middle order. 

KL Rahul scored 10 in the first innings, followed by a 20 from Shubman Gill and 24s from Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli. If not for fighting half-centuries from Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer, the Test would have looked much worse for India. 

Then in the second innings, it was worse – Gill scored 7, Rahul 2, Pujara 6 and Kohli 1. It points to a lack of solidity in the top order, an issue that India needs to solve going forward if they are to perform well against Australia. 

Shreyas Iyer is worthy of more chances – A lot has been said about Shreyas' short ball problem, much of which is legitimate. But it is worth noting that, even with that issue, he has generally been a very consistent batsman when given the chances for India. 

This is true even in Test cricket. In his entire Test career, he averages 56.72 at a strike rate of 65.13 and has scored five fifties and one hundred. His ODI numbers are also decent; in 39 games, he averages 48.03 and has scored two hundreds and 14 fifties at a strike rate of 96.00. 

His T20I numbers are slightly down, an average of 30.67 at a strike rate of 135.98 and 7 fifties. Despite his short ball problem, his numbers need to be down enough to discard him. His performances deserve a longer rope from team management.