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Facing an inconsistent Bangladesh side might be the best chance for India to seal a spot in the semifinal when the two sides meet in Adelaide on Wednesday, November 2, for their fourth match of the 2022 T20 World Cup Super 12 match. The Men in Blue overcame a staunch Pakistan bowling attack to win their first match, before brushing aside the Netherlands. But in their third game, the frailties of India's batting were laid bare during their five-wicket loss to South Africa on Sunday, October 30.
With this in mind, all eyes will be on openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, with the latter scoring just 22 runs in his three matches so far. But he has received the backing of the head coach Rahul Dravid, so his performance will be crucial if the Indian players want to see themselves in the semi-finals before their final Super 12 match on Sunday, November 6.
Rahul's flop show against big teams like Pakistan and South Africa has once again raised questions about his big-match temperament and technique against quality attacks. But facing Bangladesh, whose bowling attack has once again let them down at the T20 World Cup, might be the perfect chance for Rahul to gain some form.
Except for Taskin Ahmed, the attack comprising Mustafizur Rahaman, Mehidy Hasan, skipper Shakib al Hasan and Hasan Mahmud have been decent but certainly not world-class by any standards. And with an injury to Dinesh Karthik, the likelihood of Rishabh Pant playing has increased as well, meaning that the youngster will finally get a chance to prove himself, having started off as a benchwarmer.
Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli have already played brilliant knocks while Rohit Sharma looked good in his fifty against the Netherlands. However, Pant's exclusion from the playing XI is pretty baffling as he and Suryakumar Yadav can add an X-factor to the batting line-up.
The Indian bowling attack has been consistent in their own right, however. The trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Shami holds a distinct edge over the rival side's batting line-up.
Bangladesh have four left-handers in their batting line-up, including skipper Shakib, openers Soumya Sarkar and Najmul Hossain Shanto and middle-order batter Afif Hossain Dhrubo and it will be interesting to see if India continues with Ravichandran Ashwin, who was thrashed by David Miller in the previous game, or play Axar Patel.
A few numbers would corroborate how Bangladesh's batters have struggled in this tournament. Of the two games, one was a thriller against Zimbabwe while the other was a close game against the Netherlands. Despite facing minnows, Shakib's batters have struggled on the bowler-friendly Australian pitches.
After three games, opener Shanto is the only batter to have aggregated more than 100 runs and that too at a strike rate of 125 which isn’t commendable at all for an opener. The second-highest run-getter is Afif, the middle-order enforcer. A lot will depend on how Afif and Mosaddek Hossain bat towards the back end but against an Indian attack of this quality, they will be under pressure.
Squads
India
Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Deepak Hooda
Bangladesh
Shakib al Hasan (captain), Najmul Hossain Shanto, Soumya Sarkar, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraj, Shoriful Islam, Ebadot Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Litton Das, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Yasir Ali, Nasum Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman
