Team India will want KL Rahul to get back to form in today's game as the opener is an important part of Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma's scheme of things. The 22 runs in three matches with flop show against big teams like Pakistan and South Africa has once again raised questions about KL Rahul's big-match temperament and technique against quality attacks.
Matches against Bangladesh across formats are always like a proverbial banana peel where slipping remains a possibility but India would certainly start favourite in their penultimate Super 12 match.
India vs Bangladesh T20 World Cup match will be played in Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval which has a capacity of holding 53,000 people. The match will be broadcast on the Star Sports network (Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 3).The match will be live-streamed on Hotstar and will start at 1.30 pm IST.
The weather conditions at Adelaide is expected to see some spell of showers according to the weather forecasts, however the game is unlikely to see any washout.
Dinesh Karthik's back spasms issue might just be a blessing in disguise for the Indian team. It may open up the opportunity for Pant's inclusion in the playing XI for the Bangladesh game.
Bangladesh have four left-handers in their batting line-up, including skipper Shakib, openers Soumya Sarkar and Najmul Hossain Shanto and middle-order batter Afif Hossain Dhrubo and it will be interesting to see if India continue with Ravichandran Ashwin, who was mauled by David Miller in the previous game, or play Axar Patel.
India's attack may not struggle much in dealing with Bangladesh as the troika of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Shami holds a distinct edge over rival side's batting line-up.
A few numbers would corroborate how Bangladesh's batters have struggled in this tournament. Out of the two games they have won, one was a thriller against Zimbabwe while they played a close game against the Netherlands.
The team that opts to bowl first might make the best use of the famous Adelaide evening twilight when the ball swings a wee bit more than usual.
Squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Deepak Hooda
Bangladesh: Shakib al Hasan (captain), Najmul Hossain Shanto, Soumya Sarkar, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraj, Shoriful Islam, Ebadot Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Litton Das, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Yasir Ali, Nasum Hossain, Mustafizur Rahaman
*With inputs from agencies
