5 Bangladesh cricketers India will be wary of in the upcoming series
With the memories of a tough battle in the quarter-final of the World Cup still fresh, India will kick-start their International season against the resurgent Bangladesh cricket team. Bangladesh is coming off a dominating performance against Pakistan in the recently concluded home series and will hope to carry forward the winning momentum against India.
India too, with their full-strength squad and new backroom personnel, will look forward to improve their record against the neighboring nation. India will do well not to take Bangladesh lightly as a slip in Bangladesh would be highly embarrassing for the World Cup semi-finalists.
Bangladesh has been strengthened by some powerful performances from their experienced cricketers as well as talented youngsters in the lead up to the series against India. Let us look at the list of top five Bangladesh players who can pose a threat to India in the upcoming series:
1. Tamim Iqbal
Who better than Indian fans would know the exploits of this talented young batsman? Tamim Iqbal played an instrumental role in causing shocking defeats to India during the preliminary stages of both the 2007 World Cup and the 2012 Asia Cup. The left-handed opener has been enjoying a rich vein of form recently. He struck back-to-back ODI centuries and followed it up with a record-breaking Test double hundred in the home series against Pakistan.
Tamim’s huge impact on Bangladesh cricket can be judged from the fact that he now holds the record for Bangladesh’s highest scores in all three formats of the game. The Indian bowlers will have to come up with a special plan to counter the hard-hitting batsman; otherwise he might very well prove to be India’s nemesis once again.
2. Mushfiqur Rahim
Mushfiqur has been arguably Bangladesh's most consistent batsman across all formats. This chirpy wicket-keeper has brought life into Bangladesh’s middle-order by scoring heavily and that too at a brisk pace.
With a clever mind and an aggressive batting style, he threatens to take the game away from the opposition in no time. The pocket-sized dynamo was the cornerstone of Bangladesh’s success in the ODI series against Pakistan, scoring at an average of almost 110 runs with an equally astonishing strike-rate.
He has an impressive record against India and is rated very highly by his teammates having been described as a “run machine” by his captain, Mashrafe Mortaza.