Skipper KL Rahul would be eager to overcome his lean patch. India expects to go for the kill in the second Test against Bangladesh. It will be beginning In Mirpur on Thursday, to strengthen their position in the World Test Championship. The race for the top-two spots in the WTC standings has become more interesting with India (55.77 PCT) moving up to the second position. Succeeding South Africa (with 54.55 PCT). The South African team suffered a heavy loss to Australia (76.92 PCT) in the two-day Gabba Test. (Read Also: England team becomes the first one to whitewash Pakistan on their soil)
The upcoming home series against Australia is decisive for India. For them, to have a second straight WTC final. But they also can’t afford any slip-ups against Bangladesh. Who showed plenty of fight in the first Test after poor first innings with the bat.
With regular skipper Rohit Sharma yet to recover from his thumb injury. There are no changes in the Indian playing eleven. The first Test presented a golden opportunity for the likes of Shubman Gill and Kuldeep Yadav and they made it count.
Is Rohit fit for the game?
It would have been extremely difficult to drop Gill following his maiden Test hundred in Chattogram. However, that situation did not arise and Gill will be keen to cash in on another opportunity.
Rahul too would look to lead from the front after the disappointment of his two innings in the first Test. Like Chattogram, the pitch expects to be slow and decent for batting, providing Rahul an ideal platform to get runs under his belt before the Australia series. It would be fair to say that Cheteshwar Pujara, made a comeback with the one-off Test in England. He has consolidated his number three position with a 90 and an unusually attacking 102 not out in the series opener.
It was refreshing to see Pujara going for his shots as India needed to accelerate in the second innings.
The stage is ready for Virat Kohli to score his first Test hundred since November 2019.
India batted at more than four runs per over in the second innings. That needs to check whether that was the need of the hour or the beginning of a good performance as a team again.
Considering the conditions, the bowlers will once again be looking to target the stumps. Let it be the pacers or slower bowlers.
Kuldeep, playing his first Test since February last year, flaunted his artistry with a match haul of eight wickets. He is Comparative to lead spinners R Ashwin and Axar Patel. He has slightly under-bowled in the second innings. Still, the left-arm wrist spinner managed to take three wickets.
Ashwin could manage only one wicket in spin-friendly conditions and he will be looking to make up for that here.
Axar displayed his utility to the team as a spinner with four strikes in the second innings with the batters. Bangladesh is confident also in its chances. Challenging for them to review how they bat on day four. Rookie opener Zakir Hasan has shown he belongs at this level. Senior batters including Litton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim will be aiming to learn from their mistakes and make big hundreds.
Skipper Shakib Al Hasan did not bowl in the second innings due to an injury. That is the reason why Bangladesh has added left-arm spinner, Nasum Ahmed, to the squad. Nasum is likely to make his Test debut on Thursday.
Former captain Mominul Haque too could get a game.
“He’d be the first to admit that in last year he hasn’t got the runs. But he is a too good player to not have around. You cannot afford to lose players like Mominul. He is under consideration for the second Test.” said head coach Russell Domingo.
Bangladesh Team: Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mominul Haque, Yasir Ali, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan (c), Litton Das, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Khaled Ahmed, Zakir Hasan, Rejaul Rahman Raja, Nurul Hasan, Taijul Islam.
India Team: KL Rahul (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara (VC), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (WK), KS Bharat (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Saurabh Kumar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.
