India will have to recover quickly from the eye-opening loss to Sri Lanka and lift its game by a few notches against an unpredictable Bangladesh in the Nidahas Twenty20 Trophy, here on Thursday.
Rohit and Dhawan start will always be important for India’s chances but against Bangladesh, they would like to score more in the death overs than they did against Sri Lanka.
Rohit is not expected to make many changes in the eleven but Axar Patel, who is the most experienced spinner in the squad, might get to bowl alongside Chahal.
The talented K.L. Rahul too sat out of the first game but as the opening combination is settled, it remains to be seen if he gets to bat in the middle-order.
Washington Sundar was the pick of the bowlers against Sri Lanka, striking twice at an acceptable economy rate of seven runs per over.
In the absence of the rested Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the likes of Shardul Thakur and Jaydev Unadkat need to up their game in the unforgiving death overs. Thakur leaked as many as 27 runs in his first over against Sri Lanka but bounced back well to concede only three in his next attempt.
Facing Bangladesh in the shortest format has always been challenging for India.
Mahmudullah will continue to lead the side in absence of the injured Shakib Al Hasan, who also missed the T20 and Test series against Sri Lanka at home.
Having lost the Tests, T20s and the ODI tri-series final (all to Sri Lanka), Bangladesh will be desperate to buck the recent trend.
The teams (from):
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammad Siraj and Rishabh Pant.
Bangladesh: Mahmudullah (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Mushfiqur Rahim (wicket-keeper), Sabbir Rahman, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Abu Hider, Abu Jayed, Ariful Haque, Nazmul Islam, Nurul Hasan, Mehidy Hasan and Liton Das.
Match starts at 7 p.m.