India hope to continue dominant run in World Cup as Bangladesh challenge awaits

As India prepares for another blockbuster battle against Bangladesh in the ongoing World Cup, all eyes will be on the points table, considering the fact that Rohit Sharma and company will be trying their best to bolster their grip on the top position.

India is on song at the moment as they have blown away the likes of Australia, Afghanistan and Pakistan in three consecutive matches. More importantly, the entire Indian team has come together and the players have all backed each other brilliantly. If the bowlers have had a bad day in office, the batters have ensured that they are getting the job done and vice-versa. Against Pakistan, it was a collective display of both the batters and the bowlers that helped India make it 8-0 against their arch-rivals in the history of the World Cup.

It is highly unlikely that Team India will be making any changes to the side that is currently unbeaten in the World Cup. The only change that can be crossing the minds of the Indian thinktank is to include Ravichandran Ashwin in place of Shardul Thakur considering his numbers against the Men in Green and Red.

Talking about Bangladesh, they will be desperate to regain the lost momentum in the last two fixtures where they have been pulverized into smithereens by the likes of England and New Zealand. Despite starting the tournament on a decent note against Afghanistan, the Tigers are in utter disarray at the moment.

Their batting unit’s form is a major sport of bother after crumbling against England and New Zealand. With the kind of bowling form that India is in the midst of, they will need to bat with their tails up. Their bowlers haven’t been up to the task either as they were exposed to the very skeleton by two of the most formidable sides of the world.

With all said and done, when these two forces collide, there will be a lot to talk about. Particularly, with the contrasting form that these two teams are in, India will be the obvious favourites to walk away with the bragging rights but irrespective of the happenings, you can never write Bangladesh off, particularly in Indian conditions.

Venue Watch:

The MCA Stadium has shown us all last year that it can be really conducive for the sides batting second, particularly with the dew factor coming in. The spinners will have a massive say in this ground but that is for the first half. The second half, however, usually sees less turn because the spinners have a problem in gripping the ball. It is a batting-friendly track and the numbers won’t suggest otherwise. A total of 7 ODIs have been played so far with four of them having been won batting first while three have been won chasing. The average first innings score is 307 while it drops to 281 while chasing.

Head to Head:

Matches played: 40

India – 31

Bangladesh - 8

Match Details:

Match – India vs Bangladesh

Venue: MCA Stadium, Pune

Date: 19th October, 2023

Time: 2:00 PM

World Cup face-offs:

Matches played: 4

India: 3

Bangladesh: 1

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (c), Mushfiqur Rahim, Najmul Hossain Shanto (vc), Litton Das, Towhid Hridoy, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed, Mahedi Hasan, Tanzid Hasan, Tanzim Hasan, Mahmudullah