Bangladesh skipper Liton Das won the toss and elected to bowl against India at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka. The visitors decided to give the debut cap to young pacer Kuldeep Sen for the opening match of three ODI series on Sunday. Sen impressed many in IPL 2022 with his discipline and raw pace with the ball which he also continued in domestic cricket to make a way for himself in international cricket.
India decided to go with four fast bowling options as Mohammed Siraj has been given the opportunity to lead the attack. While Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar are included as fast-bowling all-rounders to add depth to the Indian batting.
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Interestingly, KL Rahul has been picked over Rishabh Pant as he has also been given the role of keeping the wickets.
The series opener marks the re-uniting of Rohit, Shikhar Dhawan and Kohli as the top three. Since the 2019 World Cup, the trio have featured in just 12 ODIs together.
While Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Ahmed were picked as the spin all-rounders as India rely heavily on their top five to set the platform for a big score.
Skipper Rohit Sharma said that the ODI World Cup is still far away and the team wants to take one game at a time.
“To be honest I was not sure. The pitch seems to have some moisture, so we would have bowled first too. Some injures and few issues, we got four all-rounders playing. Washington, Shardul, Shabaz, Deepak Chahar. Kuldeep Sen is making his debut. Myself Shikhar and Virat up the order. KL Rahul will keep wickets. We hardly played many games in New Zealand, but we fought well. Some of the guys batted really well. World Cup is still far away, we don’t want to look too far ahead. We want to focus on what we have in hand and play accordingly,” Rohit said at the toss.
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Meanwhile, Bangladesh skipper Das believes that the team has to follow the process to outclass a side like India.
“We are going to bowl first. Looks like it could be sticky for the first ten overs, that’s why we are bowling first. Three seamers and two spinners for us. We want to follow the process and play good cricket,” Das said.
Bangladesh (Playing XI): Litton Das (c), Anamul Haque, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (w), Mahmudullah, Afif Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman, Ebadot Hossain
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Sen
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