Team Tigers stands at the threshold of making history at Adelaide Oval. Their match against formidable India today is critically important for both teams as they have four points each after playing 3 of the 5 matches of the super 12 of T20 World Cup 2022.
Bangladesh won matches against lowly Netherlands and Zimbabwe, but lost by a big margin against group leaders South Africa. India won a last ball thriller against Pakistan at MCG. They also won against the Netherlands but lost against South Africa.
Team winning today will be favorably placed to move into the semifinal. India currently ranked number 1 in T20 ranking is obviously favorite against Bangladesh ranked 9. But it in tournament featured with many upsets a possibility of Bangladesh upsetting cannot be ruled out. Bangladesh definitely has the ability for upstaging or surprising India. If that happening history will be rewritten and the group of death will see possible demise of a giant.
India was run away favorites in the pre tournament forecasts. They must consider themselves extremely lucky in winning their important first match through an out of the world extraordinary batting display of Virat Kohli in addition to some fortunate incidents going their way. Win against Netherlands is nothing to be mentioned. But Indians again struggled against protean pacers at Perth and lost. Hence this India in present form does not look invincible. But today they will leave nothing unturned.
Bangladesh on the other hand was going through a prolonged lean patch in all formats of the game. After losing all their matches in the Asia Cup and three nations T20 tournament along with New Zealand and Pakistan, Bangladesh also got blown away by Afghan in the practice match. However, Bangladesh edged out Netherlands in the first match. After losing by big margin against South Africa at Sydney they won a thriller against Zimbabwe. They now stand in a possibility of moving into the semi-final if they can prevail over both India and Pakistan. Even one win against India may be enough.
For winning or challenging India Bangladesh needs batting well and posting at least 170-175 on relatively small Adelaide Oval. Shanto played his only innings of substance at the world stage in the last match needs repeating his feat. Would suggest playing better equipped Litton Das opening with Shanto, as Soumya Sarkar is in uncertain form. Unless Bangladesh survives the early burst of Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneswar Bangladesh may struggle posing a decent total. Shakib must come to his own . Either him or Litton has to bat deep . Bangladesh could score 150 against Zimbabwe as Shanto held the innings together. I would suggest playing Afif at 4 as he is among the few batsmen in form. If Soumya is retained in the team he can bat at 5 followed by Meraj replacing Yasir Ali. Bangladesh needs appearing in the match with 5 front line bowlers. Indian batsmen will definitely target one or two bowlers.
As far as bowling is concerned Taskin ,Hasan Mahmood and Mustafiz must not panic if Rahul, Rohit or Kohli blast a few. Bangladesh needs getting two three early wickets to panic India. Bangladesh bowlers must not bowl full or short. Back of length will be the right approach. Suya Kumar Yadab and Hardik Pandya must not be given leverage. Shakib may come on his own today. I think Bangladesh can even play with 7 batsmen bringing in Ebadat or Shoriful as fourth seaming option.
India (probable): KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (capt), Virat Kohli, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumarand Arshdeep Singh
Bangladesh (probable): Najmul Hossain Shanto, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Afif Hossain, Mehedy Hasan Meraj, Nurul Hasan (wk), Mosaddek Hossain, 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Hasan Mahmud
Bangladesh has nothing to lose. If 7 batsmen cannot produce a defendable score. Rather 4+2 frontline bowlers will give more options to Shakib.
A win by Bangladesh will mean huge for Bangladesh cricket. India is vulnerable to genuine pace . Hope Taskin and co prove consistent.
BDST: 1525 HRS, NOV 02, 2022
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