2011 World Cup preview: India seek revenge, but Bangladesh no pushovers
India and Bangladesh, face each other in the first game of the tournament on Saturday. The Group B game will be played at the Shere-Bangla in Mirpur.
By Suneer Chowdhary
The curtain for the Act One of the 10th edition of the World Cup were drawn with the opening ceremony of the tournament at the Bangabandhu in Dhaka on Thursday. But the real action begins when two of the co-hosts, India and Bangladesh, face each other in the first game of the tournament on Saturday. The Group B game will be played at the Shere-Bangla in Mirpur.
Virender Sehwag is not known to mince his words and he hit the nail on the head when he spoke of how this would be a grudge game – a revenge match in reply to the early ousting of India at the hands of Bangladesh in the previous edition of the World Cup. Things have changed dramatically since then and India goes into this World Cup as favourites. Importantly, India has scored seven wins in a row against Bangladesh since that fateful loss.
This is not to say that Bangladesh is a side which can be ignored – not by any stretch of imagination. At home, Bangladesh has exhibited the kind of form that is almost Sri Lanka-like before they won the 1996 title. They have trumped New Zealand and Zimbabwe easily and given England a run for their money on more than one occasion in the last 15 months or so.
In Shakib al Hasan, they have a captain who is a rebel, with a penchant to speak his mind. But he is an all-rounder foremost who knows his job with the bat and the ball. Not surprisingly, he is the No 1 all-rounder in the ICC ranking.
In left-handed Tamim Iqbal, Shakib has a lieutenant whose run of form has been awe-inspiring.
Bangladesh will also look to go in with their full quota of spinners with the likes of Mahmudullah and Abdur Razzaq to assist the captain. India will look to score as many as they can off the new ball.
Going into the game, the one question that has befuddled the fans and debated by experts is that of the Indian batting line-up. Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni pick themselves up. There were three slots up for grab and four personnel before the South African series.
Then, Yusuf Pathan grabbed one of them with his murderous but much-matured approach batting, leaving Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, and Suresh Raina to fight out for the remaining couple.
It is a pity then, but not incorrect, that Dhoni has signalled Raina will have to miss out. Kohli’s form puts him into an unfamiliar pedestal of the No 2 position in the ICC Rankings for the batsmen, while Yuvraj doubles up as an excellent left-arm spin bowler to complete what is one of the strongest batting line-up in the world.
Piyush Chawla’s inclusion into the squad was ridiculed, but he seems to have done his bit in the warm-ups to deserve a place in the starting eleven. This could mean that Dhoni will have to exclude another of his Chennai Super Kings teammate, Ravichandran Ashwin. Zaheer Khan’s fitness will be of concern, but if injury-free, he will lead the attack, in all probability with Ashish Nehra.
The bowling, especially the quicker version, will continue to be a sore point for the Indian team. The Bangladeshi batting will look to come out hard at them in a fashion the New Zealanders did in the second warm-up game. Dhoni’s response then was to get the spinners on early, but he had the advantage of fielding extra bowlers in those games. How he responds to a possible onslaught here may go a long way in dictating how far India will go in the tournament.
India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt and wk), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Ashish Nehra.
Bangladesh (from): Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Shariar Nafees, Zunaed Siddique, Mohammad Ashraful, Raqibul Hassan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mahmudullah Riad, Abdur Razzak, Naeem Islam, Shafiul Islam, Suhrawardi Shuvo, Rubel Hossain, Nazmul Hossain.
Umpires: Steve Davis (Australia) and Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka)
Time: 14.30 local (08.30 GMT)
Pictures © AFP