Touring Bangladesh A cricket team will appear against India A in a very interesting series decider ODI in Bangalore. India A won the first match comfortably by 96 runs. Bangladesh A bounced back in the second ODI outplaying India A by 65 runs. Now with honors even now the third match is expected to witness mouthwatering contest.

Team holding their own in nerve wrecking contest will win eventually. On the performance of the first two matches, it is not easy to separate the two evenly matched units. India A is playing as an unit for a while and has been boosted with the addition of limited over specialist Suresh Raina (he failed to deliver in two matches).

Bangladesh A has several national players who contributed in the resent Renessa of Bangladesh in international ODI. Incidentally, the top dogs in either side have not fired yet. A typical fiery innings from both Soumya Sarkar and Suresh Raina is highly expected today.  Neither Shabbir nor Mominul also played to their potential.

Sanju Samson and Unmukh Chand played one good innings. The only consistent performers in the two matches were Bangladesh vice Capatin Nasir Hossain and Wicket Keeper all-rounder Liton K Das. Gurkeerat Singh had a wonderful all round performance in the first match while speedster Rubel Hossain had a fiery fast bowling performance in the second match.

In both the matches, team batting first won. If that is the trend possibly, team winning the toss will bat today and throw a challenging total for the opponent to chase. Bangladesh late middle order showed great resilience in both the matches after early order melt down in both matches .Indian late middle order delivered in the first ODI but crumbled in the second.

We know Indian Wall Rahul Dravid marshals the India A team. There are few better cool-headed strategists in the world cricket than Rahul. He will definitely apply plan B or C in the match. Bangladesh can have the expectation that their big guns in the top order may finally deliver. Players like Soumya, Mominul and Shabbir may not fail in every match. On the other hand, Liton and Nasir also not carry the team on their tested shoulders all the time.

We suggest the following team to appear in the match for Bangladesh

Bangladesh A: Anamul Haque, Soumya Sarkar, Mominul Haque (Capt),  Liton Das, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shuvagata Hom,  , Arafat Sunny, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Al-Amin Hossain.

We think India A will be fielding the team as under

India A: Unmukt Chand (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina, Sanju Samson, Karun Nair, Karn Sharma, Rishi Dhawan, S Aravind, Dhawal Kulkarni and Gurkeerat Singh Mann

In both the matches Bangladesh top order failed to handle Indian pace attack confidently. S Aravaind troubled in the first match and Rishi Dhawan in the second. Rony Talukdar failed in both the matches. Soumya looked edgy. Anamul failed in the first and got out in the second while he just started looking good.

Mominul and Shabbir failed in the second match. BCB should have sent an experienced top order batsman in the team. Mahamudullah Raid could be ideal choice. For what has been seen so far would suggest replacing Rony with bits and pieces all-rounder Shubhagato. We would also suggest for shuffling the batting order. Mominul should play at his normal position number three.

Liton and Nasir should bat at four and five to be followed by Shabbir and Shubhagato. Liton at this moment appears to us the mostly technically equipped confident batsman in the side. If Liton and Nasir can be promoted marginally in the batting order the chances of Bangladesh, putting up a challenging score or chasing a large target will be brighter.

In the first match, Bangladesh could not play Aravind and Gurkeerat at all confidently. In the second match, both were wicket less.  Indian attack is not at all worry some for the Bangladesh batting. May be today we will witness Soumya, Anamul, Mominul and Shabbir in true elements. If that happens, there are no reasons why Bangladesh cannot win the match and the series. Shubhagato in the team will give depth to middle order batting and more options for Mominul to set his bowling attack.

Rubel in the form that he demonstrated in the second match must have caused a big headache for India A. When he is in prime form, he is a match winner. Young Al Amin will only get better. Shaiful is bowling steadily. Arafat Sunny is bowling economically and will definitely get among the wickets soon. How one call keep Nasir away from wicket taking?

One must write a sentence or two about the excellent performance of Liton K Das in front and behind the wicket. He has batted admirably well in both the matches and his excellent keeping was among other reasons of winning the second ODI. Lipton’s place in all format of international cricket for Bangladesh is a mere formality now.

We must not take it for guaranteed that India A will give up so easily. They must be bleeding profusely from the defeat. They will definitely appear with all guns blazing. They have so many inform players of India’s domestic format. Suresh Raina is overdue for a typical Raina innings. Chand, Manish Pandey, Shanju Sampson are all past master. It will be a keen tussle and any body’s game.

BDST: 0825 HRS, SEP 20, 2015
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** Sparkling Nasir Piloted Tigers Win