Watchful India to take on Bangladesh in a WC Opener

While taking on each other tomorrow in Mirpur, it would be in the mind of the players of both Indian and Bangladeshi team that what had happened on 17^th March,2007 in Port of Spain. Yes, on that day Bangladesh had beaten India in a 2007 WC match. For India that defeat became the main reason of early exit from the World Cup. So the Indian team will be very careful and watchful but at the same time must be looking forward to take the revenge of 2007 while taking on the Bangla Tigers tomorrow in the first match of the ICC Cricket WC 2011.

Performance in the warm up games

India had a very good outing during the two warm up matches as they won both their matches vs Australia and then vs New Zealand. In both the matches the biggest positive for the team was ther performance of the bowling department and specially of the spinners. Spinners, led by Piyush Chawla’s 4 wickets turned the match vs Australia from a point where Australia was looking good to win the match. Batsmen didn’t click in the first match but in the 2^nd match vs the kiwis India scored 360 runs thanks to blistering century of captain M.S.Dhoni and half centuries by Kohli, Gambhir and Suresh Raina. India bowled well and allowed New Zealand to score only 243 on the wicket which was looking good to bat on. On the other hand Bangladesh won 1 and lost 1 of their two warm up matches. In the first match vs Canada, Bangladesh won quite comfortably. First they bowled Canada out for 112 and then won the match by 9 wickets. Tamim Iqbal played a good knock of 69 from just 50 balls. But they lost their 2^nd warm up game vs Pakistan. From 58/3, they could not stop Pakistan from scoring 285 runs. Sakib-al-Hasan bowled well and took 3 wickets after bowling his full quota of 10 overs and conceding 49 runs. In reply to Pakistan’s 285 Bangladesh had a bad start as they lost Tamim Iqbal on the first ball of the first over. Then there was a partnership of 73 runs between Junaid Siddique and Imrul Kayes but after that nobody could face the Pakistani attack and they were bowled out for 196.

Team Composition:

I guess captain M.S.Dhoni has said in the press conference that Virat Kohli will surely be in the Playing XI. It means that mostly Suresh Raina will miss the game as Yuvraj Singh looks good to get a match over Raina. In the pace department looking at the current form and Dhoni’s choice, it looks like Munaf along with Zaheer and Nehra will play in tomorrow’s match so Sreesanth will have to sit out. Dew will play a vital role so India might play with only one spinner in Harbhajan Singh. Good thing for India is that in recent past part timers have done really well with the ball. So, team India’s line up would be Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Kohli, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Pathan, Harbhajan,Zaheer ,Nehra and Munaf.

Bangladesh meanwhile have a fitness issue as Shafiul Islam didn’t look 100% fit during the warm up game and could not bowl his quota of 10 overs. But he is expected to be fit before the 1^st match. In recent past Raqibul Hasan has done better then experienced Mohammad Ashraful so he might get a match ahead of Ashraful. So Bangladesh’s line up would be Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Raqibul Hasan, Shakiba al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Abdur Razaq, Naeem Islam, Shafiul Islam and Rubel Hossain.

Key Players:

As always Sachin Tendulkar will always be a key player for the team. But apart from him I think it would be Sehwag, Pathan, Zaheer and Harbhajan on whom the team will depend a lot.

From Bangladesh, Tamim Iqbal Shakib al Hasan and left arm spinner Abdur Razzaq will be the key players.

India is definitely looking favourites to win tomorrow’s match but we know that Cricket is a funny game and Bangladesh had proved that vs India in WC 2007. I do agree with former Bangladeshi captain Habibul Bashar that the pressure would be more on Indians.