Hyderabad: Momentum, form and history make India runaway favourites in the one-off Test against Bangladesh which begins at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium at Uppal, here Thursday. It is a ground, where India have never lost winning three of the four Tests till date with the other being a drawn game.
This will be the first time that Bangladesh will be playing a Test match in India and to compound their problems, they will miss the services of ‘cutter’ Mustafizur Rahman who knows the ground very well having played for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the last edition of the IPL.
It will definitely be on India’s mind to finish the game as quickly as possible keeping in mind that they are ranked No.1 in the ICC rankings while the minnows are at No.9. And also player for player, the hosts appear much superior with both world class batters and bowlers at their disposal. But then in cricket, at times rankings get blown out of the window and India must not allow complacency creep into their psyche.
The game will see the return of Ajinkya Rahane in the middle-order and Wriddhiman Saha behind the stumps in place of triple centurion Karun Nair and Parthiv Patel respectively. However, India skipper Virat Kohli is yet to decide on whether to give the India cap to Kuldeep Yadav or have a second off-spinner in Jayant Yadav backing up the duo of Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Knowing Kohli’s attitude, he may well opt for Jayant keeping in mind the latter’s batting prowess down the order. But then if he doesn’t risk Kuldeep against Bangladesh, then it will be injustice to the left-hand chinaman bowler.
India’s batting order, other than Rahane more or less picks itself. The ground has been happy one for Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara with the former getting his highest Test score while the latter scoring his maiden double hundred here only.
Bangladesh are yet to finalise their playing XI, but it can be safely said that they will be going into the game with three spinners in Shakib Al Hassan (left-arm), Hasan Miraz (off-spinner) and Taijul Islam (left-arm orthodox). Miraz had a fantastic debut series against England at home picking up 19 wickets in three Tests, but then bowling to the likes of Kohli, Pujara and Vijay, not to forget KL Rahul though, will be a different proposition all together.
In Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah Riyad, Sabbir Rahaman and skipper Mushfiqur Rahim, they have some very good batsman. What however is lacking in them is Test temperament which came to the fore when in spite of scoring 550-plus runs in the first innings, they lost a game against New Zealand recently. To even challenge India, they will have to play out of their skins. But even if they do so, chances are they will finish a distant second in this game.
Agencies
