Post India’s fabulous victory over Pakistan, after the massive hype that the match had generated, there will be a tendency among fans to think the matches against the other sub-continent teams could well be easy. It would do well to remember that last year, Bangladesh won the ODI series against India.
Their white-ball teams are far more competitive than the red-ball ones and given a semblance of a chance can make life difficult for the opposition.
India could well be feeling like a batter who relaxes his guard just a little bit after he has completed a century. That little relaxing makes him lose his wicket. That said, the fact that Shubman Gill, Kohli, Rahul and Shreyas haven’t got a century so far will certainly make them hungry. Hardik spent a short time in the middle against Australia while Jadeja hasn’t had a hit so far and there will be lots of hunger there.
Whether Bumrah will be rested against Bangladesh and saved for the big-ticket clash against New Zealand in Dharamshala which is barely a couple of days after the Bangladesh game will be interesting to see.
Bangladesh have struggled to get off to a good start and if one looks around, the teams that have not got a good opening stand have found it tough to put up a big total.
Apart from Bumrah, India’s other trump card is Kuldeep Yadav. The left-armer has bowled quite superbly, varying his line smartly and getting enough turn to induce a false stroke.
The Indian captain Rohit Sharma has been breathtaking with his batting and his captaincy has been even more impressive. The calmness he brought even when Pakistan were at 150 for just two wickets made sure that the body language of his team was positive all the way. His bowling changes too were spot on and that gave the bowlers the breather to keep going when they were brought back for another spell.
It’s going well for India but there is still work to do and tough opponents to face. A couple of battles are won but there are weeks to go for the war to finish.
(Professional Management Group)
