Responding to the visitors' score of 228, India A rode on a 112-ball 116 not out by skipper Dhawan to post 161 for one at stumps in the three-day game at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. India A still trail by 67 runs.
Sharing a 153-run opening stand with Abhinav Mukund (34), Dhawan carried his bat through to the end of day's play with Shreyas Iyer for company (6 not out).
Earlier put to bat, Bangladesh A suffered from lack of partnerships as Sabbir Rahman (122 not out) and Shuvagata Hom (62) stood tall amidst the batting ruins. Nasir Hossain (32) was the only other batsman to get into double figures as the innings saw six ducks.
Pacer Varun Aaron (4-45) and off-spinner Jayant Yadav bagged (4-28) four wickets each to rip through the Bangladesh A batting.
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Aaron first sent back Soumya Sarkar (0) with a beauty on his very first ball he bowled. It was a delivery which Sarkar nicked to wicketkeeper Naman Ojha.
Aaron reared one up to promising star Liton Das (0) so alarmingly that the he had no option but to give a catch to Baba Aparajith (substitute). He rounded up the day by making Hom give away a catch to Karun Nair.
Yadav (4-28) also shared honours with Aaron as he got rid of Saqlain Sajib (4), Shafiul Islam (0), Rubel Hossain (0) and Jubair Hossain (0), in 46 balls he got to ball.