Published: Sep 21, 2018, 04:53 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 21, 2018, 04:53 PM (IST)
India captain Rohit Sharma called it correctly at the coin toss and had no hesitation in opting to bowl against Bangladesh in their first match of the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup 2018 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday.
India are high on confidence after a dominating performance against Pakistan earlier in the week. On the other hand, Bangladesh are bruised after receiving a 136-run thrashing at the hands of Afghanistan on Thursday.
India have been forced to make one change to their playing XI – Ravindra Jadeja comes into the playing XI replacing injured Hardik Pandya. Jadeja will play his first ODI since July 2017.
For Bangladesh, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mustafizur Rahman return after being rested on Thursday.
Explaining his decision to bowl first, Rohit said the familiarity with the venue and the conditions means they know that batting under the lights is easier.
“It suits us [chasing], we have played few games here and we understand the conditions here now. It gets better under the lights so it is better to chase. It is our strength and we will like to do that. Pitch is similar to what we play in India but it is little more dry. We are used to these conditions,” Rohit said at the toss.
Mashrafe Mortaza, the Bangladesh skipper, said he would have batted anyway and hopes his team would have recovered from the defeat to Afghanistan last night.
Playing XIs
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal
Bangladesh: Liton Das (wk), Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Mahmudullah, Mosaddek Hossain, Mehidy Hasan, Mashrafe Mortaza (captain), Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman
