Bangladesh will face India in their second outing in the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup. The game will take place at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday, September 24. The Bangla Tigers won their first game by four wickets against Sri Lanka. They now seem to continue their momentum with a victory over their western rivals India. Bangadesh could have rarely managed to trouble India in the past. India, on the other hand, have been unbeaten so far in this tournament, and no side has been able to disturb them.
Bangladesh must play out of their skins to even nudge India out of their comfort zones, especially on a surface that is known to be friendly for batting. India thrashed their arch-rivals Pakistan by six wickets in their last outing. Their batters Shubman Gill (47) and Abhishek Sharma (74) led from the front. Their bowling unit, save the spinners, received a bollocking at the hands of the Pakistani batters. Still, India could coast to a comfortable win purely due to the primacy of their batting unit.
The Men in Blue will aim to chase a target rather than set it, since it allows them to execute their game plans well. The Bangla Tigers, meanwhile, seem to have some muddled tactics, but captain Litton Das' strategy of bringing seamer Mustafizur Rahman on at the death seems to have worked so far. Their spin duo, Nasum Ahmed and Mahedi Hasan, have impressed in patches in this tournament. However, consistency still seems to evade the entire Bangladeshi bowling unit. Against India, they cannot afford to err in their lines and lengths since they will be punished for doing so.
Predicted Teams
IND: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy.
BAN: Saif Hassan, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Litton Das (c & wk), Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain, Jaker Ali, Mahedi Hasan, Nasum Ahmed, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman.
Key Players
Kuldeep Yadav (IND): Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav is one of those rare commodities in world cricket who can single-handedly turn things around for his team. Yet, he was neglected by the team management in their recent tour of England. Still, Yadav has found favour coming into the Asia Cup. Yadav's performances have been excellent so far, with him having pocketed nine wickets already in this tournament. He is nigh on unplayable in the middle overs owing to his variations, when scoring runs quickly becomes a must for opposition batters.
Towhid Hridoy (BAN): Middle-order batter Towhid Hridoy is one of the most exciting young talents to come out of Bangladesh in recent times. He is known to clear the ropes at will and also rotate the strike against the spinners. Now, Hridoy comes into this game on the back of a stunning 58 he scored against Sri Lanka. The 24-year-old's strokeplay is flamboyant, and he has already returned with two thirty-plus scores in four innings in this tournament.
Match Prediction
The gulf in class and quality between India and Bangladesh is immense. We expect the Men in Blue to win this match comfortably. There is virtually no competition between the sides, with India having dominated most games played between these two teams in the past. Bangladesh might still have managed to have a say in this game if it were played on a spinning track. However, the pitch in Dubai is famous for being batting-friendly. So we expect India's batting unit to make use of these home-like conditions and trouble the Bangladeshi bowlers.