Adelaide: Even though there is a demand to bring Rishabh Pant in the top order, but India is in poor form in the Super 12 match of the T20 World Cup against Bangladesh (IND vs BAN) here on Wednesday. Running Lokesh can go on the field with Rahul (KL Rahul). Bangladesh team has been making ups and downs but in this match India will come as a strong contender for victory.
Head coach Rahul Dravid may also have been forced to ponder a few points after the Indian batsmen’s poor show against South Africa on a fast and bouncy pitch in Perth. KL Rahul has so far scored only 22 runs in three matches and has been a complete failure against strong teams like Pakistan and South Africa, raising questions about the opener’s game. However, Rahul can stay in the playing XI as Dravid has a lot of faith in him.
Bangladesh are considered to be weak in T20 cricket and their attack would be an ideal opportunity for Rahul to return to form. Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Mehdi Hasan Miraj, skipper Shakib Al Hasan and Hasan Mahmood’s Bangladeshi attack is good but certainly not world class.
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Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli have already played excellent innings while Rohit Sharma scored a scintillating half-century against the Netherlands. But the decision to not keep Pant in the playing XI is irritating everyone. Dinesh Karthik was injured in the previous match and in such a situation, Pant may find a place in the playing XI against Bangladesh. Bangladesh team has four left-handed batsmen.
These include captain Shakib, openers Soumya Sarkar and Najmul Hossain Shanto and middle-order batsman Afif Hossain. In such a situation, it will be interesting to see whether Ravichandran Ashwin will be retained in the team or Axar Patel will be replaced. David Miller had beaten Ashwin fiercely in the last match. Indian fast bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Shami should not have trouble dealing with Bangladesh batsmen.
Bangladesh batsmen have struggled so far on pitches suited to the bowlers of Australia. So far, only Shanto has been able to score more than 100 runs in three matches. After him comes the number of middle-order batsman Afif. In front of the Indian bowlers, there will be pressure on their batsmen. The team that decides to bowl first can take advantage of Adelaide’s famous evening hours when the ball swings more.
The teams are as follows:
India: Rohit Sharma (capt), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel , Deepak Hooda
Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Najmul Hossain Shanto, Soumya Sarkar, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Mehdi Hasan Miraj, Shorful Islam, Ibadat Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Liton Das, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmood, Yasir Ali, Nasum Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman .
The match will start at 1:30 pm Indian time. (agency)