DHAKA: Amid Delhi’s air quality plummeting to hazardous levels, a severely depleted Bangladesh team will run into an Indian side that has hung up caution in trying to adapt to the changing T20 landscape. India will be without their rested captain Virat Kohli, but still have the wealth of experience and a variety of options at their disposal.
However, the same can’t be said of Bangladesh who are desperate for some breathing space (both literally and figuratively). No Shakib Al Hasan. No Tamim Iqbal. Mashrafe Mortaza has retired from the shortest format. The promising Mohammad Saifuddin isn’t available because of a back injury. They’ve recalled Arafat Sunny and Al-Amin Hossain – both of whom last featured in a T20I over three years ago.
As Bangladesh prepare for life after Shakib’s ban, the onus is on Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mustafizur Rahman to step up. This Mustafizur, however, isn’t that Mustafizur who had (off)cut through India in 2015. He has lost some fizz – no pun intended – since then, but his knowledge of Indian conditions, having turned out for Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians in the IPL, might come in handy.
In their most-recent T20I, against South Africa, Kohli challenged himself and his team-mates to break out of their comfort zones and although the bat-first experiment didn’t quite come off, it highlighted India’s new, daring T20 approach. This series presents India another opportunity to test out their allrounders – Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar and newbie Shivam Dube. Yuzvendra Chahal is back in the mix once again and while India have been going big on batting depth in recent times, his wicket-taking threat can’t be ignored.
PITCH AND CONDITIONS
The after-effects of Diwali have led to a public-health emergency in Delhi, and conditions will continue might continue to be hazy on Sunday as well. The pitch for the last international game – an ODI against Australia – at the Feroz Shah Kotla offered some purchase for the spinners as the match progressed. On the eve of this T20I series opener, Mahmudullah said that the pitch had some covering of grass, but “will be good for batting.”
