The much expected India-Bangladesh brief cricket series kicks off tomorrow with the start of the lone test at Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium, Fatullah, Narayanganj. India Bangladesh will play three-match ODI series thereafter.

The monsoon is at its peak now. The cricket admirers will be hoping against hope that none of the matches to be affected by rain as the series promises to witness mouth-watering contest.

If we go by records, Bangladesh stands way behind its formidable neighbour in test cricket having lost all but one of the nine previous head to head contests. The only other rain affected match ended in a draw.

India won all matches quite comfortably. But, Bangladesh caused some major upsets in ODIs. In 2007 World Cup in West Indies, Bangladesh accounted for first round exit of very strong Indian team from the preliminary round. Four members of that memorable match Tamim, Mashrafe, Shakib and Mushfiqur are still the nucleus of the present Bangladesh team.

Bangladesh also beat India at Asia cup at Dhaka couple of years back. Great controversies were created last time the teams met in the quarter finals of World Cup at MCG in March 2015.
 
Several matters merit discussion here. India does not prefer decision review system (DRS) and as such DRS will not be used in the series. India wanted a venue to play test where Bangladesh has not played test in recent time. That is why the test venue is not Mirpur, not Chittagong and not Khulna.

Usually in a bilateral series home team enjoys some privileges as far as venue, wicket. But, in this case it seems that the visitor’s choice was given priority. Now it has to be seen whether the wicket for the test is also prepared as per prescription of the tourists.

An unwarranted controversy surfaced over the team manager only days before the series. Some print media and electronic media yesterday (Monday) stated about resignation of Bangladesh Cricket Teams’ Manager Khaled Mahmud Sujon. But later he himself clarified the matter confirming that he will stay for the series.

The developments leading to the gossip evidence that something unprofessional is cooking inside BCB. The series is very important for Bangladesh to consolidate its position in world ranking. The peripheral matters must not dampen the spirit of the team though man in question created few controversies in the recent past.

Bangladesh earned respect and attention as a very competent team in limited version of the game over the last few months. They had excellent world cup, historic performance against Pakistan. Even Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned about Bangladesh Cricket team in his concluding speech at the end of his historic Bangladesh visit.

India is a very balanced team and is currently ranked third in ICC test ranking behind South Africa and Australia. But they did not particularly enjoy a good run in test cricket off late. This writer has seen India struggle a lot in the last test series against Australia in Australia. The vulnerability of Indian batting against Australian pace attack on fast bouncy wicket was visible.

Apart from Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, others looked pretty ordinary in dealing with moving deliveries in the corridor of uncertainty. Debutant Lokesh Rahul played a good innings at Sydney. Rohit Sharma was injured during test series.

But in world cup India bull dodged all opponents till quarter final where it met Bangladesh at MCG. Though they won comfortably at the end few controversial decisions went in their favour. Otherwise Bangladesh looked really competitive. Those incidents caused heart sore.

Bangladeshi President of ICC at that time AHM Kamal strongly criticised some incidents which led to unfortunately development of him not being allowed to hand over trophy at the final. He resigned. Luckily those incidents did not carry further. New President of BCCI Jagmohan Dalmiya did the necessary balancing acts in pacifying the tension. Hopefully Bangladesh and India will keep the contest within the 22 yards of the playing surface.

Bangladesh is not expected to win the test. But at the same time the test will not be a mere walk over for India. India will play to play its best to overcome the challenges. The new Bangladesh team play fearless aggressive cricket. Only a few days back Bangladesh saved the Khulna test from a seemingly impossible position making few world records against stronger Pakistan bowling attack than India.

Senior players like Tamim, Shakib and Mushfiqur are in top form. One wonder boy Mominul is on the verge of creating world record. Few talented youngsters have appeared. Even Indian press has started questioning whether present Indian team has the bowling attack to take 20 Bangladeshi wickets in the test to win.

Ishant Sharma is not a steady performer. Couple of years back he appeared as a tormentor for the Australian team even in Australia. This writer has witnessed how he harassed the great Ricky Ponting. But he rarely repeated that performance. Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav are quick but not consistent. On docile Bangladesh wicket they may find it tough going. Bangladesh did not play all that bad against Junaid Khan and Wahab Riaz. The only other pacer Bhubaneswar Kumar may also not find Bangladesh wicket suitable to his brand of bowling. It will be all left to Harbhajan Singh and Ravichndran Ashwin to take the responsibility of handling many talented left handed Bangladeshi batsmen (Tamim, Kayes, Mominul, Shakib, Soumya and others).

Bangladeshi batsmen also play spin well. They are not hesitant in dancing down the wicket in playing aggressive strokes or sweeping. Indian bowling will have tasks at hand. So we find enough reasons why there should be expectations that Bangladesh should bat well to make the test competitive.

There cannot be any doubt though about the quality of Indian batting. They might have looked ordinary against Australia in Australia but in sub-continental condition Indian batting is the best at this moment. Moreover, Bangladesh does not possess a potent test bowling attack.

Two of the wicket taking bowlers Mashrafe and Taskin for different reasons is not available for test. Rubel in test is not yet a successful bowler and rookie Shahid is finding his way yet. Shakib, Taijul and Jubair Hossain have to deal with the best batting units of spin bowling.

Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma can take stern tests for Bangladesh bowling attack on flat Bangladesh wicket.

If we compare in Batting, India will be a bit ahead in quality and depth, in bowling they will also be marginally ahead but Bangladesh fields better than India now. India is definitely favourite to win the test but not without contest. If Bangladesh can put their acts together they may even take the match to the day five and who knows may even salvage something out of it.

Probable Teams:

INDIA: S Dhawan, M Vijay, V Kohli, C Pujara, R Sharma, A Rahane, W Saha, R Ashwin, H Singh, I Sharma and U Yadav.

BANGLADESH: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque, Liton K Das, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Nasir Hossain, Taijul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Mohammad Shahid and Jubairr Hossain.

India have lot of stake in the lone test. If somehow Bangladesh causes an upset their raking will dip to seventh from third. It is virtually the beginning of a new era as new captain Virat Kohli will virtually have his first series as MH Dhoni’s brilliant career ended midway through last series. Bangladesh will definitely not die before death.

BDST: 1416 HRS, JUN 09, 2015
SR