India must correct mistakes from the previous two matches in all-important clash against Bangladesh

With a win under their belt, MS Dhoni's men are smiling again, with fears of an early elimination being put on the backburner for now. With a relatively easy match against Bangladesh coming up, the mood in the dressing room is sure to be much brighter than it was a few days ago.

Still a lot of work to be done

The match against Pakistan ended up in our favour, but that doesn't mean it was a perfect performance. There were mistakes aplenty in that game from the Indian team, and it is imperative for those mistakes to be ironed out quickly.

For starters, I thought the decision to bowl first after winning the toss was questionable. This was a high-pressure match, on a slow and low pitch. It's a good thing that Pakistan have a weak batting line-up who failed to put up a total in the region of 130-140; anything around that would have made for a very difficult chase.

Secondly, I couldn't quite comprehend why Hardik Pandya bowled in the match at all. Sure, he picked up the big wicket of Shahid Afridi, but he was also belted for quite a few runs after that. What sense does it make to bowl a medium-pacer on a pitch where reading the spin was proving to be a nightmare?

Yuvraj Singh didn't get a bowl, and Suresh Raina sent down just one over, in which he took a wicket. But the worst side-effect of Pandya bowling two overs was that Ravichandran Ashwin couldn't complete his quota of four overs. On a pitch where Ashwin was turning the ball square and giving away just four runs an over, that was absolutely criminal.

Ashwin never gets the appreciation he deserves

Virat Kohli was brilliant in his composed innings during the chase, and it could be said that he prevented Dhoni's errors from being exposed. He and Ashwin have been the strongest pillars of the Indian team lately, but Ashwin being a bowler never gets enough credit for his stellar work.

Batsmen in India get a lot of flattering nicknames when they do well – Sachin Tendulkar is called 'Master Blaster', Rahul Dravid 'The Wall', Virender Sehwag was the 'Nawab of Najafgarh'. But what of the bowlers? They don't get nearly the same amount of love from the fans or analysts.

But I have found a nickname for Ashwin; I call him 'The Ring Leader'. That's because he's well and truly the man in charge of the Indian bowling attack. He leads from the front by bowling in the powerplays, and is also the man Dhoni turns to when he wants to break a good partnership.

Ashwin is a legend already in my book. He's won the Man-of-the-Match award thrice in T20I and the Player of the Series award once, and those numbers climb even further up when you consider Tests. And yet, he doesn't even have a regular place in the team.

During the recently concluded series in Australia, Ashwin was dropped after just one bad match. This was despite the fact that he had just come off a series-turning performance against South Africa, where he picked up a mind-boggling 31 wickets in four Tests.

But this was not the first time that Ashwin was subjected to such injustice. I remember the Adelaide Test a couple of years ago, where Karn Sharma was handed a Test cap ahead of Ashwin. On a pitch where Nathan Lyon scalped 12 wickets, Ashwin was made to watch from the sidelines.

That was possibly the worst selection decision I've ever seen in Indian cricket. Batsmen like Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma are given endless chances, but if a bowler slips up once, he is shown no mercy. That to me is completely shocking, and highly unfair.

Ravichandran Ashwin (R) celebrating a wicket with Yuvraj Singh

But the man never complains, and keeps smiling despite any kind of injustice meted out to him. And that's a fantastic approach to have; youngsters watching cricket can learn a lot from Ashwin and the way he handles pressure. He is a true role model who shows exemplary attitude in putting the bad stuff behind him.

Dhoni won't change a winning combination

For now though, Ashwin is fully entrenched in the team, and that can only be a good thing. But what of the other players? Are the calls for picking Ajinkya Rahane ahead of a misfiring Shikhar Dhawan justified? But more importantly, will Dhoni listen to those calls?

To my mind, Dhoni absolutely won't change the team composition at this stage. He has his own style of captaincy, and that involves being patient with the players he trusts. And he's got reason for doing so too; while Dhawan may have failed in the last two matches, he is certainly capable of producing a game-changing knock any time.

But more importantly, having Dhawan in the team gives Dhoni the lefty-righty combination at the top. The importance of that can never be overstated; it makes the opposition captain unsure of which bowlers to use in the powerplays, and upsets the field settings big time.

I feel that Dhawan won't be dropped even if he fails in the next two matches. I am 100% sure that Dhoni would want to use the exact same team for the entire tournament; that means Rahane won't get a look even if the entire world is calling for it.

I don't think Dhoni will tinker with the order of the batting either. While it is tempting to promote himself up the order to shield the top three, he doesn't quite have solid justification for that.

India have a very strong batting line-up; it's not like the Pakistani line-up, where there is an acute shortage of options which forces Afridi to come in at No. 4. Dhoni had famously promoted himself in that World Cup final against Sri Lanka, but that was when he wanted to prove a point. Now, however, we have the likes of Dhawan, Rohit, Raina, Kohli and Yuvraj ahead of him – all of whom are proven match-winners.

Prediction

There's always talk about India's batting, but currently our bowling attack is not too shabby either. Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah have been bowling exceptionally, Raina has been chipping in, Yuvraj can bowl a few handy overs too. And then there's the Ring Leader Ashwin himself, who is a major threat against any team.

That kind of bowling firepower combined with the proven batting credentials will prove too tough to counter for Bangladesh. The Tigers are anyway missing Taskin Ahmed who has been suspended, and when it comes to their batting I don't think they are capable of putting up a score of 170-180 against India's bowling. Moreover, their record away from home is rather ordinary.

None of the factors are in Bangladesh’s favour this match, so I expect India to win comfortably. But having said that, the T20 format is always liable to produce an upset. This is the format where any team, even the so-called minnows, can topple the top-ranked side.

So I do give Bangladesh a 30% chance of pulling off the upset. But those are not great odds, are they?

Also published on Mohammad Kaif's blog here.