New Delhi: India will be hoping to inch closer to a place in the T20 World Cup semi-finals on Saturday when they face Bangladesh in their second Super 8 clash at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua and Barbuda.
The two teams were off to contrasting starts in their opening Super 8 clashes on Thursday. The Men in Blue, who topped Group A with three wins in New York and a washout in Lauderhill, handed Afghanistan a 47-run thrashing in Barbados to extend their unbeaten run in the tournament.
Bangladesh, who beat Sri Lanka and Netherlands to the second spot in Group D, suffered a 28-run loss against 2021 champions Australia in a rain-affected encounter at the same venue where they face Rohit Sharma and Co on Saturday.
While a victory will help bring Bangladesh’s campaign back on track and keep their hopes of a maiden appearance in the World Cup semi-finals — ODI or T20 — alive, India will be virtually assured of a top-two finish in Group 1 of the Super 8s should then end up collecting their fifth win in six matches in the ongoing tournament.
India might find themselves in a three-way tie on four points with Australia and one of Afghanistan or Bangladesh if they win one and lose one in their remaining fixtures. If that indeed turns out to be the case, their Net Run Rate (NRR) — which currently reads +2.350 after their clinical victory over Afghanistan — should come in handy and help them advance to the knockouts.
Where the match could be won and likely XIs
India’s middle order has come to their rescue in the last two matches, helping the Men in Blue chase down 111 against the USA after getting reduced to 39/3 and post 181 against Afghanistan from 62/3. Surya had stitched an unbroken 72-run partnership with Shivam Dube in New York and a 60-run stand with Hardik Pandya in Barbados.
Their top-order, especially the opening combination has largely failed to fire in the tournament so far, with batting stars Rohit and Kohli yet to produce a solid opening partnership so far in the tournament.
Whether the Bangladeshis can keep the Indian middle-order quiet and restrict them to a score below 160 or not will go a long way in deciding the fate of the match.
As for their combinations, the Indians aren’t likely to tweak their combination at the moment after drafting in an extra spinner chinaman Kuldeep for their first match of the tournament in the Caribbean.
Kuldeep overcame a nervy start to finish with figures of 2/32 on his T20 World Cup debut and will be expected to keep the Tigers quiet along with left-arm finger spinners Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja in the middle overs.
Bangladesh, too, aren’t expected to make sweeping changes to their XI even if they were outplayed by Australia and find themselves in a do-or-die situation. Pressure, however, will be on Litton Das — who scored 36 in the opening game against Sri Lanka and 36 in the next four outings. Not only has the senior wicketkeeper-batter struggled to collect runs in the ongoing tournament, but his strike rate has also been under 100 in each knock.
Likely XIs:
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah.
Bangladesh: Tanzid Hasan, Litton Das (wk), Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Shakib Al Hasan, Towhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah, Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Mustafizur Rahman.
