While a berth in the tri-series final is almost sealed, India would not want to take chances by experimenting too much. Bangladesh, on the other hand, are upbeat from their win over Sri Lanka.
An upbeat Indian side will take on Bangladesh in the fifth Twenty20 International (T20I) of the tri-series at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Wednesday.
All three teams — hosts Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India — have won a match each in the first leg of the tri-series before India defeated the hosts by six wickets on Monday, in a match curtailed by rain delay.
Recap
After a long delay due to rain, skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl first, keeping in mind the possibility of more rain later in the match. The match was curtailed to 19 overs per side.
The Sri Lankan openers made a decent start, striking at around 10 runs an over before Danushka Gunathilaka got out for 17. His opening partner, Kusal Mendis however, steered the innings with a 38-ball 55.
Upul Tharanga, Thisara Perera and Dasun Shanaka also made useful contributions. However, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat and Washington Sundar struck at regular intervals to restrict the hosts to 152/9 in 19 overs. Thakur bowled a magnificent spell of 4-27.
In reply, India lost Rohit Sharma early, yet again with Shikhar Dhawan following suit. KL Rahul and Suresh Raina pitched in 18 (17) and 27 (15) to put India back in the driver’s seat.
However, it was Manish Pandey’s unbeaten 42 off 31 balls and Dinesh Karthik’s unbeaten 39 off 25 balls to take India home with nine balls to spare.
Set up
India had made just one change in the match against Sri Lanka — KL Rahul in place of Rishabh Pant. Unless there are any injuries, it is unlikely that the Indian camp would make any changes to the playing XI.
Some of the young players such as Deepak Hooda, Mohammed Siraj and Axar Patel are yet to get a match in this series, showing that winning matches remains the aim for the team management, not experimenting.
Chances of rain, although lower than Monday, still remain according to weather reports. News reports have suggested that Bangladesh have already spoken of ‘being mentally prepared for a stop-start game’.
A single venue is being used for the tournament and the pitch too is likely to remain the same, assisting batsmen.
Bangladesh are coming out of a win over Sri Lanka and are likely to retain that combination.
While a berth in the tri-series final has almost been sealed, India would not want to take chances by experimenting too much. They would want to go for the kill.
Squads:
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 date and time: 19:00 IST, Wednesday, March 14 | R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo
(With PTI inputs)