India continue to evolve from subcontinental stereotype

"If you ask me, we [India's fast-bowling attack] are right at the top. I won't even count ourselves in the [top] 3. These guys deserve it. As a captain when we started off, that was the conversation, that was the one thing in my mind that I really wanted to see happen. Batting was never an issue, spin was never an issue. After Zak [Zaheer Khan] and all the stalwarts went away, we were thinking how can we get back to the top, have the ability and the firepower to pick 20 wickets.

"Just seeing the way they've bowled, it's the belief that stands out - any kind of the pitch, any kind of opposition, they believe that they can get more out of the pitch than the opposition. And that belief matters a lot - in fact it is everything for a fast bowler. I couldn't be more happy for them. And the best thing is they're still not done yet. They're getting more and more hungry every time they step out and that's their biggest strength," Virat Kohli had said in the press conference right before the Indore game, that his side wrapped up in a little more than two-and-a-half days.

'Hungry' seems to be the buzzword within the camp that has now raked up 300 World Test Championship points, as many as 240 more than the second-best. Bharat Arun broke down - rather simplistically - the reason and means to the unmatched success that the Indian quicks have attained in the last few series.

"Ours is an extremely skilled bowling attack. If you can bring in a lot of discipline into the skill, that makes them perform well time and again," Arun said, before providing an insight into the level at which his wards are operating.

As expected, India went in for an overnight declaration, which meant Bangladesh had to first negotiate the new ball in the morning conditions on Day 3 and then proceed to scale down a mountain of runs packaged as deficit to even stay in the game. Shadman Islam, the 24-year-old opener in just his fifth Test, had Ishant Sharma running in at him from around the stumps and getting the ball to angle in and then shape away - causing the left-hander all sorts of problems.

In the first over itself, Ishant even attempted the magic ball - aging it in, pitching on middle/middle-and-leg and then shaping away sharply to square up the batter. He didn't quite pull that off, but there was a new trick - learnt as recently as the previous day - that would come in handy a little later. This time, the ball pitched outside the off-stump, jagged back in for a change, and disturbed Islam's stumps in just the seventh over.

"Actually he started working on that variation from yesterday. So if you look at the way he signalled after he got the wicket, he was very happy that he could do that. Each time you try to explore new avenues in your bowling, you constantly look to improve. And this would give him the much-needed fillip to experiment more and try out," Arun said.

"Ishant is probably the most experienced bowler we have. He's played over 90 Test matches. He was always economical, he was always giving us the control but he felt that he needs the batsmen to play a lot more. It was about him trying to experiment with different angles. What he's doing now, suits his bowling best," he added.

India came into this series after having annihilated South Africa across three Tests, where the