DHAKA: Bangladesh and India are set to kick-off the main round of the Asia Cup at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in city’s Mirpur area on Wednesday (February 24).
The match of the first-ever Twenty20 format tournament is scheduled to begin 7:30pm (Bangladesh Time).
Big Picture
Bangladesh's limited-overs team has maintained their Mirpur stronghold jealously since failing to chase 106 against India in 2014. They have played 19 matches and won 14 of them.
The trouble is, out of those five losses, three have come in T20Is.
With their one-day cricket in prime order, the coach Chandika Hathurusingha has been concentrating on building skills that are vital to success in the shortest format.
The team goes into the Asia Cup after a couple of camps in Khulna and Chittagong.
India are not light on preparation either. They have been playing T20 cricket since the start of the year and are quite certain of their first XI. The only issue might be is some of the players in that XI have not had enough match practice.
Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and the returning Virat Kohli have been merciless in their plunder of runs that the middle order has not had much to do. Over six matches, Yuvraj Singh has faced only 26 balls and rookie allrounder Hardik Pandya 18.
India do not seem to be worried though, as both Dhoni and Kohli have said their players are well tuned to T20 cricket thanks to the IPL.
Team news
Dhoni returned fitter and leaner after a rare break from international cricket just before the Australia tour in January, but suffered an onset of back spasms two days out from India's first match of the Asia Cup and three weeks out from their first match of the World T20.
The team management said he was recovering well and will be assessed before the match. If he is not fit, Parthiv Patel, who last played for India in 2012, has arrived as back-up.
But if Parthiv is brought in, will he fit in the middle order or at the top where he's had most of his success in domestic limited-overs cricket?
Bangladesh squad
Mashrafe Mortaza*, Abu Hider, Al-Amin Hossain, Arafat Sunny, Imrul Kayes, Mahmudullah, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Taskin Ahmed
India squad
MS Dhoni*†, R Ashwin, JJ Bumrah, S Dhawan, Harbhajan Singh, RA Jadeja, V Kohli, B Kumar, P Negi, A Nehra, HH Pandya, PA Patel†, AM Rahane, SK Raina, RG Sharma, Yuvraj Singh
Tigers coach Chandika Hathurusingha was impressed by Mohammad Mithun in the Chittagong camp, so he could get a first look in ahead of Imrul Kayes. Both Taskin Ahmed and Abu Hider might miss out while Nasir Hossain too could be benched with Nurul Hasan taking wicket-keeping and late-hitting duties.
Stats and trivia
Since 2014, Bangladesh batsman score at 132.33 in the last four overs, which is the worst among Full Members. In the Powerplay, Bangladesh batsmen's strike-rate of 112 is second-worst after Pakistan's.
In T20Is since 2014, India's No. 5 to No. 7 have averaged just 16.78 - only Hong Kong, Nepal and Papua New Guinea have averaged worse.
Quotes
“We had all our experiments done against Zimbabwe in January. There's no room for any such experiments in the Asia Cup. This is a very important tournament ahead of the World T20,” said Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza.
“As many different teams as we play before the World T20, it gives us an opportunity to assess what the teams are like, what the balance is like, what their strengths and weaknesses are and where we stand against them,” said India batsman Virat Kohli.
Umpires: RSA Palliyaguruge and Shozab Raza
TV umpire: Enamul Haque
Match referee: RB Richardson
Reserve umpire: AK Chaudhary
Source: espncricinf.com
BDST: 1427 HRS, FEB 24, 2016
RS/RR
