India’s possible playing XI to face Bangladesh
After a successful series against New Zealand and England, Virat Kohli’s Indian Test team will take on Bangladesh in a one-off Test match in Hyderabad starting on February 9. This match is a perfect opportunity for India to get into their groove going into the all-important four-match Test series against Australia.
The selectors did not take chances by experimenting with the squad as MSK Prasad and co. picked a strong 16-member Indian team to take on the Bangladeshis. It should be noted that Tamil Nadu opener Abhinav Mukund makes a comeback into the national team after 6 years.
Squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund
Let us take a look at how India will line-up to face their Asian rivals.
Openers
India will be missing the services of Parthiv Patel, who opened the batting on three occasions against England and scored two fifties. In his place, Abhinav Mukund makes a comeback to the Indian team and will be the third opener alongside Murali Vijay and KL Rahul.
Murali Vijay has been India’s most consistent opener in this format in the last few years and is certain to open the batting against Bangladesh. Vijay was out of action for few weeks due to a shoulder injury he sustained in the fifth Test against England and returned to action in the ongoing Inter-Zonal T20 tournament where he is representing Tamil Nadu.
In all likelihood, Vijay will open the batting with KL Rahul as the Karnataka batsman, who scored 199 in the last Test India played, is expected to be in the playing XI ahead of Mukund. Although Rahul is in the form of his life, he is getting criticised for being inconsistent with the bat and he will like to prove the critics wrong by scoring in the one-off Test against Bangladesh and will look to continue the form in the Test series against Australia.