ADELAIDE: India-Bangladesh contests are usually shrill affairs, more so from the Bangladeshi side, with cut-throat fans setting social media on fire in the lead-up and aftermath.
Bangladesh fans expect their team to win every time they play India but so far their team has tasted success only once. No wonder, skipper Shakib al Hasan took great pains to downplay his team's chances, even going to the extent of appearing a bit under-confident.
All the talk, even from India coach Rahul Dravid, was about mutual respect.
"We want to play well in the next two matches (against India and Pakistan), so if we can win one of them, it will count as an upset. We will be happy to inflict that upset. Both teams, on paper, are better than us. We have seen Ireland beat England and Zimbabwe beat Pakistan," Shakib said. "India are the favourite team, they came here to win the World Cup. We are not favourites, we did not come here to win the World Cup. If we win against India, it will be called an upset."
'No clear favourites'
Asked to define India-Bangladesh contests, Dravid said, "We respect them a lot. They're a very good team. This format and this World Cup has shown us that you can't take any team lightly. Ireland showed that against England. It's already such a shortened, rushed, noisy format, it's difficult to say who's a clear favourite."
