India guard against complacency against Bangladesh: Twenty20 World Cup
B’desh first hurdle to India’s quest for T20 WC title defence
Zeenews Bureau
Nottingham, June 06: In what is turning out to be an anti-climax of sorts, the Twenty20 World Cup in England seems to have rubbed the rain Gods the wrong way from the onset.
After rain forced cancellation of the opening ceremony and a delayed start to tournament opener between England and Netherlands on Friday, it seems set to play spoilsport in India's opening match against Bangladesh here today.
Heavy rains lashed the city last night and it has been drizzling since morning here, making the chances dim for the defending champions' first Group A match, scheduled to start at 6 pm local time (IST 10.30 pm).
Meanwhile, two summers ago, Bangladesh had ruined India’s World Cup party with an unexpected victory in their first match over their fancied Asian neighbours. It was a setback India never recovered from and just a week later found themselves on the first flight home, out of reckoning for cricket’s ultimate prize at the group stage itself.
Fast forward 2009. A lot has happened in the last two years. India rose like a phoenix from that disastrous Caribbean adventure to lift the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa six months later. Under the inspirational leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India has grown from strength and on back of some consistent high class performances, are rated as one of the top sides in world cricket at the moment. The golden generation of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Anil Kumble has been seamlessly replaced by the likes of Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma and the Pathan brothers.
On the other hand, Bangladesh, who enjoyed a fairytale World Cup in West Indies, have failed to live up to the expectations. Their youngsters- Tamim Iqbal, Shaqib-Ul-Hasan, Nafees, Ashraful, Mortaza among others, have failed to deliver on their early promise, failing to deliver at the level of consistency that is expected in international cricket.
As the two teams line-up again at Trent Bridge, defending champions start as favourites. But as the unfancied Netherlands proved against hosts England on Friday, past reputations count for little in this fast food format of cricket.
While Bangladesh may look easy meat on paper, Dhoni and his men will guard against complacency when they begin their title defence.
Considering the ease with which India bulldozed Pakistan in their last warm-up match, Bangladesh would require an extraordinary effort even to stretch them but upsets do happen and that would keep Dhoni's men on their toes in the Group A encounter.
For India, Virender Sehwag’s shoulder injury remains a worry and going by Dhoni’s observation, his chances of playing tomorrow’s match look slim.
"To be honest, I don’t know (about the injury). He could be for the second game but let’s see," Dhoni said.
Fortunately, with Rohit Sharma dazzling in the makeshift opener’s role in both the warm-up matches, Sehwag’s absence was not felt.
Rohit was particularly impressive against Pakistan, when he and Gautam Gambhir put on effortless 140 runs in 16 overs to lay the platform for a facile win.
With Rohit in red hot form, even Gambhir, otherwise aggression personified, was seen happy playing second fiddle and the duo is likely to open the innings again on Saturday.
"Rohit seemed an appropriate talent who could really open the innings. He has the time when he plays the quickest of bowlers. That really helped me take the decision," Dhoni said.
"Now he has made a big impact. Hopefully, he would get those runs throughout the tournament," he added.
Suresh Raina looks in the same touch which made him such a prolific player in the second Indian Premier League while Yuvraj Singh has overcome the food poisoning that kept him out of the first warm-up match and is raring to go.
Dhoni had promoted himself at the number three position in both the practice matches and would like to be among the runs once the main tournament gets going.
This will also be an opportunity for the Pathan brothers -- Yusuf and Irfan -- to chip in with some brisk runs and both would fancy their chances against Bangladesh’s limited bowling resource.
In the bowling department, Zaheer Khan’s shoulder injury is likely to keep him out of action tomorrow, said Dhoni.
"Zaheer has started bowling and signs are encouraging but we don’t want to take any risks," he said.
Much to Dhoni’s relief, Ishant Sharma is back among the wickets again even though the Indian captain said he wanted the lanky pacer to bowl in the middle overs.
"I still feel Ishant should bowl in the middle overs. May be an over to start or end with but he is best served in the middle overs," Dhoni said.
One grey area bothering Dhoni is bowling at death and the Indian captain admitted it did not work in either of the practice matches against New Zealand and Pakistan.
"I don’t think we bowled well in the final two overs. We were not experimenting, we were trying to bowl yorkers and that’s not good," he said.
India's second match of the tournament is against Ireland on Wednesday.
The squads (from):
India: MS Dhoni (c), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma and RP Singh.
Bangladesh: Mohammad Ashraful (c), Abdur Razzak, Junaid Siddique, Mahmudullah, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mithun Ali, Mushfiqur Rahim, Naeem Islam, Raqibul Hasan, Rubel Hossain, Shahadat Hossain, Shamsur Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Syed Rasel and Tamim Iqbal.