World Cup 2019, Bangladesh vs India Warm-Up Match: 3 key battles that will decide the game
Having being battered by New Zealand in their first warm-up encounter at the Cricket World Cup 2019, all of India’s glaring weaknesses in the batting department came to the fore. Heavily touted as a side expected to go on and get their hands around the glistening trophy, the Indian contingent was rattled by a pristine display of pace bowling, something that saw them fold out for a petty 179.
Come their final warm-up encounter against Bangladesh at the Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Tuesday, the issues to address for India are multifold. However, against an opposition who they have had a tight hold over, having defeated them 29 times in the 25 encounters the two have traversed in, India will be eyeing up their chances of papering over the cracks against Bangladesh.
We pour into the key battles for India which they’ll need to win in order to register a flawless performance and end their warm-up match sojourn with a win in their kitty.
Virat Kohli vs Mashrafe Mortaza
11 innings, 654 runs and Bangladesh is a country Virat Kohli always prospers against. He’s time and time again come up with the massive knocks against them, scoring freely to obliterate a country who have come under the brunt of his scintillating strokeplay way too often.
On a similar surface to the one they encountered at the Kennington Oval and under similar heavily overcast conditions, India will look to overcome their aberrations with the new ball. And someone they need to come good and amass a bagful of runs is their captain Virat Kohli. He was skittled out cheaply the previous time around, failing to read a slower one that jabbed back into him to go between his bat and pad, to become only the 22nd time he was bowled in an ODI match.
The one bowler who has been among the wickets for Bangladesh is Mashrafe Mortaza. He can get the ball to move around and if Kohli targets near the helmet with the ball growing onto him, he will face problems. If Bangladesh are to have any chance of winning this, Kohli’s wicket is a one they need to send back under 20 runs.
Yuzvendra Chahal vs Tamim Iqbal
One of the reasons Bangladesh emerged as the winners from the recently-concluded tri-nations series between themselves, Ireland and West Indies was the form Tamim Iqbal found himself in. He was among the runs, giving his side an important barrage of innings right at the top of the order which helped Bangladesh get to good totals.
While this World Cup is being projected as the pacers heaven, the spinners on Monday showed why they will play such an integral part in their teams' rise to the top. Joe Root got 3 and Moeen Ali got one against Afghanistan while for Australia, the spinners came to the forefront against Sri Lanka. Such was the fruition with which the rank turners enjoyed themselves, that even Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell found themselves getting a wicket each, while there were two for Zampa and one for Lyon.
And India’s fortunes will be navigated similarly this World Cup. With Kuldeep Yadav struggling immensely, Yuzvendra Chahal needs to take onus and come up with an incisive performance against Bangladesh. He has the ability to entice batsmen into the big shots with the drift he gives on the ball before eventually taking it away from the batsmen and if he can find the cracks, Tamim will find it improbable to face him.
Rohit Sharma vs Mustafizur Rahman
Such is India’s lack of solidity in the middle-order that all eyes will be on their top-order in this World Cup. And after the pertinent bad start against New Zealand, the Asian giants will be wishing that they got away with their one shambolic collapse early on in the tournament.
If India are to do well, they need opener Rohit Sharma to be among the runs throughout and be alongside Virat Kohli to set the foundation from which the middle-order can blast off. While he led India to an Asia Cup triumph against Bangladesh in 2018, scoring at will, Mustafizur Rahman is someone who is bound to leave him perturbed. Rohit has struggled against him, losing his wicket to the bowler 3 times in 5 innings to fizzle out and we might just see Bangladesh deploy him early on against the opener.
Match Details
ICC ODI Cricket World Cup, Match 10: Bangladesh Vs India
Date And Time: 28th May, Tuesday- 3:00pm IST
Venue: Sophia Gardens, Cardiff
Television: Star Sports 1, Hindi/HD
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