India eye a winning start against Bangladesh as the race for WTC final intensifies
With the ODI series going against India, the Men in Blue will like to snatch the mantle back from their neighbours as an important two-match Test series against Bangladesh awaits on the horizon. A lot will be up for discussion as India eyes a crucial spot in the WTC final and in order to do so, they will want to whitewash the Tigers.
It has been a while since the Men in Blue were seen in whites as their last Test series came in March 2022 against Sri Lanka where they bested their neighbours convincingly in the former’s backyard. However, this is a totally different ball game with the surfaces of Bangladesh being drastically different from what it used to be when India last toured the Tigers.
India will be without three of their primary players as skipper Rohit Sharma injured his right thumb while fielding in the second ODI, Ravindra Jadeja is yet to recover fully from his knee injury and Mohammed Shami copped a blow just ahead of the Bangladesh tour, forcing him out of the equation.
However, that does very little to dent the Indian spirits that will be led by KL Rahul in the absence of Rohit Sharma while Cheteshwar Pujara, who had a phenomenal county season in 2022, will be deputising for the former. The presence of Kohli, Pant and Shubman Gill also adds to India’s sheen in the batting department while Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin can be the prelude to India’s bowling madness.
Bangladesh will be happy to prise out a significant series win against India but when it comes to the longest format of the game, they will be needing all hands on deck to defy the might of a star-studded Indian side who were the finalists of the maiden edition of the WTC 2019-2021.
They have a decent batting side that they will heavily rely on to plug the crevasses that a slightly lessened bowling unit in absence of Taskin Ahmed may pose. With all said and done, Bangladesh is a very unpredictable side to brave, especially when the contest is on their turf.
Venue Watch:
The surface at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium has always been known for its batting-conducive track as the numbers would suggest. A total of 22 Test matches have been played here where 8 of them have been won batting first while 7 have been won chasing. The average first innings score has been 371 while the average second innings score is stationed at an even 345. The scores for the third and the fourth innings take a gradual dip as it has lingered somewhere close to 230. These numbers are downright suggestive of the fact that the first three days will be a batter’s paradise while the final two days of the contest can very well be a bowler’s den to look out for.
Stats:
Sachin Tendulkar is the leading run-scorer in the Indo-Bangladesh rivalry when it comes to Test cricket with 820 runs at an average of 136.66 from 9 innings.
In the list of the highest centurions in the Indo-Bangladesh rivalry, India occupies the top five spots led by Sachin Tendulkar with 5 tons followed by the likes of Rahul Dravid, Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir.
Zaheer Khan leads the line of bowlers with the highest wickets against Bangladesh for India in the longest format of the game with 31 scalps.
Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan were the only bowlers to claim 10 wickets in a Test match in the entire Indo-Bangladesh Test rivalry.
Head-to-head:
Matches played: 11
India: 9
Bangladesh: 0
Match Details:
India vs Bangladesh
Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram
14th – 18th December 2022
9:00 AM IST
Squads:
India:
KL Rahul (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara (VC), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (WK), KS Bharat (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat.
Bangladesh:
Shakib Al Hasan (Captain), Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mominul Haque, Yasir Ali, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mushfiqur Rahim, Litton Das, Nurul Hasan, Zakir Hasan, Anamul Haque, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Shoriful Islam, Rejaur Rahman Raja.