New Delhi: With the penultimate matchday of the Super 12 stage of the Men’s T20 World Cup underway, the four semifinalist slots are now slowly taking shape. But a lot of cricket is still left to be played before Sunday, starting with the encounter between India and Bangladesh at the Adelaide Oval Wednesday afternoon.
Defeat to South Africa in Perth last weekend means that both of India’s remaining matches are must-win, if the Men in Blue are to confirm their place in the semifinals.
The Bangla Tigers are the first to stand in India’s way, and have a shot at making the semifinals as well if they beat Team India and Pakistan. As such, Bangladeshi captain Shakib al Hasan’s prematch remarks that India are firm favourites and that his team shouldn’t be expected to win the tournament suggest that mind games are at play.
Bangladesh Squad: Shakib Al Hasan (c), Najmul Hossain Shanto, Litton Das, Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan (wk), Mosaddek Hossain, Yasir Ali, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Shoriful Islam
India Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Dinesh Karthik (wk), R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh
Catch all the live action from IND vs Bangladesh match here:
1:10 pm: Bangladesh have won the toss and chosen to field first, with captain Shakib al Hasan revealing one change in his lineup from the side that narrowly defeated Zimbabwe at the Gabba. Pacer Shoriful Islam replaces top order batsman Soumya Sarkar.
India captain Rohit Sharma says the toss worked out in his favour anyway as he would have elected to bat first on this cold day in Adelaide. Rohit also reveals that the Hooda experiment has been short-lived as left-arm spin allrounder Axar Patel comes back into the starting XI.
Also read: ‘We respect each other’s game,’ Suryakumar enjoys growing partnership with Kohli
Source: The Print
