Ever since the schedule for a test match in Hyderabad was announced, I decided on attending it. The question was only about which day was it going to be. With other travel plans I had no choice but to go on the first day which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
This was going to be my first ever test match in a stadium after having seen nearly 10 limited over games over the past two decades. Although the contest was between India and Bangladesh and India started off as clear favorites I was more interested in having a good test match experience.
The stadium facilities are top class 
for the players but there is a lot left to do be done to improve the fan experience. From lack of clarity over whether mobile phones would be allowed to having my earphones thrown out by security guard because they posed a “threat” it was difficult to believe this was a match being held in 2017. Another issue was having to collect tickets from a completely different place and not at the ground. It is inconveniences like this that make fans reluctant towards going to the game. Possibly due to other incidents at other grounds in the country, no water bottles were sold in the stadium. Surprisingly, the “vip” boxes had plenty of water bottles.
The day started positively with India winning the toss and electing to bat. There was a buzz right from the word go which was greatly helped by the school children that came in to watch the game. While having them at the ground created a loud noise, it was also funny to hear them shout “We want six” for the first few overs of a test match. Rahul’s early dismissal created a comic moment as the crowd stood up and started cheering as they forgot that Virat Kohli was not the No 3 in test matches. While the game continued at a leisure pace through the next couple of hours, there were intermittent incidents that lightened up the crowd.
The crowd booed the wicket keeper twice. Once when he went up in appeal for a catch that missed the bat by a huge margin and then when he tried a Dhoni’esque back flip throw run out. There were moments that brought up laughter among the crowd too as Vijay comically escaped being run out and Bangladesh reviewed against an LBW decision against Kohli that hit the middle of the bat.
Until 1:42 pm, the game, the crowd and everything was in a different zone. At 1:42 pm Virat Kohli walked out and it felt like someone turned on a switch. The crowd cheered loudly as he walked out to bat. The cheering did not stop for the next few overs. They cheered his first boundary. They cheered as he ran a single for Vijay. They cheered when he played a dot to mid-wicket. They cheered when he fidgeted with his gloves. There was a real buzz in the ground and it truly felt like test cricket was alive and shining.
As Vijay got to his century, there was a huge round of applause as they cheered him on. Until Vijay got out, a Kohli hundred was not expected as he still had a long way to go. But one cover drive of Virat that stood out as the best shot of the day signaled his intentions and the crowd slowly anticipated his century and egged him on. The chants of sixer got more frequent as Virat reached his century with a boundary.
From a Bangladesh point of view, it was disappointing to see Shakib Al Hasan being introduced so late in the morning session and to also seem him bowl so few overs. They could have kept him on a little longer since he was their most experienced bowler.
One of the more memorable moments of the day was this older gentleman playing old songs from the 60s loudly on his cellphone in the first session that amused the crowd. Towards the end of the day a group of fans started targeting Taskin Ahmed as he came in to bowl with the new ball. They kept chanting his name as he bowled his short spell.
While there was still scope for improvement in handling of facilities at the stadium, the match more than made up for it as India put on a great display of batting that had equal measures of patient as well as aggressive styles of batting.
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