India faces Bangladesh on 18th June at the Sher e Bangla stadium in Dhaka for the first ODI.
The rivalry between the two teams took a bitter turn during the quarter final clash in the previously concluded ICC cricket world cup where a controversy arose regarding a no-ball bowled by Rubel Hossain to Rohit Sharma. Bangladesh squad and fans firmly believed that it was a legal delivery and a feeling of rage, anger and protest swept across the entire nation and its after effects can still be felt.
Now speaking technically, India are no doubt the stronger side as they boast to be the second ranked ODI team in the world whereas their rivals, host Bangladesh are the eight ranked.
The two teams have played 29 matches between themselves where India have been victorious 25 times and Bangladesh only 3 times! This remarkable record must be in the back of the minds of the Indian players as they will aim for yet another series victory in Bangladesh.
But India cannot afford to take the hosts lightly because in the recent years Bangladesh has shown tremendous improvement, as they defeated England in the World Cup and recently demolished Pakistan 3-0 in their home. So it won’t be much of a surprise if they upset the visitors in one or two matches.
Lets take a look at 5 points from the perspective of India as to what they should do if they want to come out victorious in this ODI series.
Five things which India should do:
1) India’s batting should do its regular job
The greatest strength of India will be their batting line up which boasts names like Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, and Ajinkya Rahane. These players are capable enough to destroy any team’s bowling attack especially when the matches are being played in the Indian sub-continent. They do not need to anything out of the blue rather they should play their natural game, score loads of runs and put the opposition under pressure.
Although its highly unexpected that the current Bangladesh bowling attack will create much of a problem for India but it will only be unwise from India’s point of view to under-estimate the bowling attack of the home side.
2) Bowlers should look for wickets
Although India’s bowling attack is not as good as its batting, still it has enough arsenal to destroy any batting line up. A simple yet remarkable fact is that India bowled out 7 of their oppositions in their World Cup campaign incuding Bangladesh in quarter-final.
India will go with three seamers consisting Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohit Sharma while spin attack will be led by offie Ravichandran Ashwin and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
The most viable plan for the bowlers would be to continue their World Cup run, scalping as many wickets as possible as the current Bangladesh batsmen are relatively inexperienced but as said previously, there is no room for complacency even for the bowlers.
3) The return of ‘Captain Cool’
India will be led again by their World Cup winning skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has been missing in action in the Test arena but is back again in the limited over cricket. How he again leads his team in the ODI format, irrespective of oppositions and venues, will be treat to watch as we all have been waiting eagerly to get him back in action.
4) Rain factor
Since the ODI matches are being played in the monsoon season, rain might again turn out to be a spoil-sport just like it did in the Test match in Fatullah. And if rain interferes during the matches, undoubtedly D/L method will be employed to decide the fate of the match. So the Indians should keep this factor in mind and play accordingly. Apparently if they win the toss, they should choose to bowl first and the batsmen and bowlers might have to put some extra effort in such a case.
5) Playing in front of a hostile crowd
Lastly, Bangladesh will be hugely bank upon the tremendous crowd support which they enjoy by virtue of playing on their home soil. So the Indians have to play in front of a hostile full-house crowd who will be cheering the home team and will do everything possible in their capacity to disrupt the India’s flow in the games. Indians should not get affected or get carried away by the crowd’s ‘hospitality’ and instead concentrate on the matches at hand.