Bangladesh likely to play a warm-up match before the one-off Test against India
What’s the story?
With India’s one-off Test against Bangladesh just a fortnight away, the Tigers, who had a disastrous tour of New Zealand might play a warm-up match before the start of the Test match. It has been reported that the visitors will face the Hyderabad Ranji team to prepare themselves for the historic Test.
Bangladesh are in New Zealand and they were keen on playing a practice game here. We had sought the BCCI's approval for it. Now with Ratnakar Shetty on board, I think we can finalise it soon,” said Hyderabad Cricket Association secretary, John Manoj.
In case you didn’t know...
Bangladesh are scheduled to play a one-off Test match against India at Hyderabad from February 9. This would the first time any Bangladesh side will tour India in their cricketing history.
Initially, the match was scheduled to start on February 8, but it was pushed by a day as the organisers are expecting a better turnout during the weekend.
The heart of the matter
John ensured that the match will take place smoothly. He also revealed that he spoke to BCCI’s general manager Ratnakar Shetty about the smooth conduct of the historic Test.
John also admitted that the board is waiting for an approval from the BCCI to give the visitors a warm-up match before the Test and was confident about getting a green signal. Bangladesh, who just lost the two-match series against New Zealand expressed their desire to play an extra game before taking on the world number 1 team in Tests.
If BCCI approves the request, then Hyderabad, led by S Badrinath will face Bangladesh in a warm-up match in the first week of February.
What next?
India will look to continue to maintain their good record in the longer formats and gain some momentum going into the four-match series against Australia. On the other hand, the one-off match will be a good learning curve for the Bangladeshis as this is the first time they are touring the country for a bilateral series.
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Sportskeeda’s take
The warm-up match not only gives the visitors some practice ahead of the one-off Test but, also gives exposure to some of the Hyderabad players (the likes of B Anirudh, Chama Milind, Md Siraj etc.), who showed a lot of potential in the recently concluded Ranji Trophy.
With a quality spin attack, Bangladesh is expected to give a tough fight to Virat Kohli’s men when the match gets underway on February 9.