India aim to weed out Shakib’s statement by defeating Bangladesh

Adelaide: Knowing very well that the chances of qualifying for semifinals will depend on Wednesday’s match against Bangladesh, the Men in Blue will give their best shot to weed out Shakib Al Hasan’s statement that his side has not come to Australia to win the T20 World Cup, but to upset favourites India.
India are placed second on the points table with four points, same as Bangladesh, but their chances of getting into the semifinals are comparatively less, because India has a better NRR.

And to ask for improving the NRR of Bangladesh, is a tough task as they have to beat formidable teams like India and Pakistan, in their remaining matches.

Probably, this truth must have forced Shakib to make the eyebrow-raising statement here today.
History also favours India. Out of the 11 matches they have played against each other, India have won 10 games to Bangladesh one. The last time they played a T20I match against each other was in 2019.

Indian batsmen, especially KL Rahul, who has been thoroughly backed by his city-mate and head coach Rahul Dravid, will try to get a big score under his belt on Adelaide Oval pitch which traditionally is a high-scoring ground. Sides batting first have averaged 170 batting first in night games.

India’s Suryakumar Yadav has been in great form as he has two fifties under his belt against Netherlands and South Africa, and also had one against Australia in the warm-up match. He has hammered 935 runs in 26 innings played this year and averages 42.50 and strikes at 183.69.

Captain Rohit Sharma also has looked good and Virat Kohli has roared back to form at the right time in the ongoing T20 World Cup. Doubts however lingers around Dinesh Karthik’s fitness with Dravid saying a late call will be taken on his availability. The Chennai player had pulled up with back spasms as Rishabh Pant came out as a substitute to keep wickets.

India’s bowling has looked superb with Arshdeep Singh, MOhammad Shami, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar picking up regular wickets.

Ravichandran Ashwin has not bowled well, India might bring Yuzvendra Chahal, considering a good number of left-handed batsmen are in Bangladesh side and also are vulnerable to right-arm leg spin.
Bangladesh will fancy their chances especially as their confidence is on a high after defeating Zimbabwe by 3 runs in a closely-fought battle. The heroes of the match for Bangladesh were Najmul Hossain Shanto and Taskin Ahmed with bat and ball, respectively.

Shanto smashed a match-winning 71 to help Bangladesh post 150/7 and Taskin’s 3/19 restricted Zimbabwe’s chase and catapulted his side to a victory.

The problem, however, is the inclement weather forecast in the evening. The Australian Meteorological Department states that there is a 60 percent chance of a shower in the evening tomorrow, and the match starts at 6.30 pm meaning that the match has a high chance of being affected by rain.

India Probable XI: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (C), Virat Kohli, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (WK), R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh.
Bangladesh Probable XI: Soumya Sarkar, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan (C), Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan (wk), Mosaddek Hossain, Yasir Ali, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud.