World T20: Bangladesh vs India - Meek hosts face a resurgent India

Yuvraj Singh’s form has been a worrying issue for an in-form Indian team

Many similarities have been drawn between last year’s Champions trophy and current World T20, with India’s chances to do well being bleak in lead up to the mega events.

But surprisingly, India has been the most dominant team in both events, albeit with only 2 matches been played in T20 World Cup in Bangladesh. When a team is doing well, its shortcomings are highlighted more profoundly, so a lot of focus will be on Indian top order.

Indian openers are struggling with their techniques and shot-selection. Bangladesh spin bowlers and Mashrafe Mortaza (likely to be fit) will test them hard. The heat is denser on Yuvraj Singh, who needs to use his feet movement to time his strokes and stop being stuck in the crease.

Yuvraj is tentative against spin early on, but left armers are always less of a threat to left handers. It’s a silver lining for him to cash in on, and him to perform in all 3 departments is integral to India’s chances in this World Cup. After being India’s best bowler for close to 18 months now, Ravindra Jadeja is finding difficult to adapt his bowling style to the conditions. He is a bit too quick to be much easier to hit in T20 and thus needs to flight the ball more, much like Mishra.

Bangladesh have been disappointing this season, and badly need their batting firepower to deliver. Their inexperience to play good leg spin will hurt them against Amit Mishra, hence they need to play him out. Abdur Razzak is a fantastic bowler and needs to be picked back.

They need to cash in on the meekness of 3 in India’s top 4, and bowl outside off stump to Virat. Lately, Bangladesh seem to be crumbling quite easily against good teams, much like associates. Seeing Netherlands doing well against SA, they need to motivate themselves and believe that they could win this match. As much as India have positives, they have negatives too.

Form Guide

Bangladesh LLWWLIndia WWWWL

Possible Squads

Bangladesh

1. Tamim Iqbal, 2 Anamul Haque, 3 Mominul Haque, 4 Shakib Al Hasan, 5 Mushfiqur Rahim, 6 Shamsur Rahman, 7 Nasir Hossain, 8 Ziaur Rahman, 9 Sohag Gazi, 10 Mashrafe Mortaza, 11 Al-Amin Hossain

India

1. Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 MS Dhoni, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Mohammed Shami