Champions Trophy: India start overwhelming favourites but Bangladesh can be potential banana-skin rivals | Cricket News

TEAM BONDING: Indian gamers and assist employees throughout nets in Dubai on Wednesday. (Getty Images)

Time to make up for previous heartbreaks
DUBAI: At your lodge, the waiter, hailing from Bangladesh, requests you for a match ticket. Another request comes within the second you hop into the cab, as the driving force additionally occurs to be from Bangladesh.
The outfield on the state-of-the-art Dubai International Cricket Stadium appears much more lush inexperienced, whereas the ‘Ring of Fire’ -the LED lights look set to shine in full glow. The ICC volunteers are going by means of the same old drill of displaying the nationwide flags of India and Bangladesh, the employees are busy giving the ending touches to the painted adverts on the bottom, whereas the groundsmen are giving the pitch one ultimate roll. After having fun with full relaxation on Tuesday, India selected to coach on the stadium on Wednesday night at a venue which has by now turn out to be acquainted to them, whereas Bangladesh practiced on the ICC Academy.
All in all, the Dubai leg of the 2025 Champions Trophy appears set to kick off on Thursday when India, who stay the match favourites regardless of the absence of talismanic pacer Jasprit Bumrah of their ranks, tackle an unpredictable, but tough Bangladesh, in a gaggle A match. Put merely, for the 2023 ODI World Cup finalists face the specter of slipping in a ‘banana pores and skin’ recreation proper up in a match the place one defeat can go away you on the door of exit.

Next up for India are Pakistan on February 23 after which New Zealand on March 1-both in-form opponents. Clearly, this can be a far larger problem for Rohit Sharma & Co than dealing with a dour England in a meaningless sequence at dwelling.
However, having simply thrashed England 3-0 at dwelling within the ODI sequence, India would be flying excessive on confidence going into this mini-global occasion purely as a result of the format right here fits them to the ‘T’. Unlike the Tests, the place they appeared to have misplaced the sting even on the lethal turners again dwelling, and the T20Is, the place issues can be dicey, One-Day cricket is a format the place India appeared to have aced their recreation.
Remember their good run within the 2023 World Cup at dwelling, the place India steam rolled all opposition, successful 10 out of 11 matches earlier than a Travis Head century at Ahmedabad within the ultimate robbed them of the title, as Australia broke 1,000,000 hearts that Nov 19 evening?
Almost 16 months later, India would be barely frightened over the inconsistent, slightly patchy type of their two previous warhorses-captain Rohit Sharma and celebrity Virat Kohli- a failure would elevate extra fingers and questions towards their very presence within the group like by no means earlier than. However, they’d additionally be happy as punch with the type of their vice-captain and opener Shubman Gill, who, on Wednesday overtook Pakistan’s Babar Azam because the No 1 ranked batter within the ODIs. Just a couple of days again, Gill had stroked a chic 112 off 102 balls towards England within the third and final ODI, after stroking half-centuries within the earlier two matches.

To think about that Shreyas Iyer, until he smashed that game-changing 44-ball 59 within the first ODI towards England, wasn’t even assured of a spot within the XI! Despite the hue and cry over their name, India look set to offer the wicketkeeper’s spot to KL Rahul over Rishabh Pant- clearly preferring to stay by Rahul due to his confirmed document as a dependable middle-order bat.
In the bowling division, India are sure to desire left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, who has loved super success within the T20Is (99 wickets in 63 matches, whereas has he has 14 scalps in 9 ODIs), over Harshit Rana-impressive in his debut ODI sequence towards England (six wickets in three matches) throughout which he generated tempo and bounce.
With Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel set to start within the XI, it will be attention-grabbing to see whom India would choose as their third spinner-Kuldeep Yadav or Varun Chakravarthy, for his or her lung-opener. Kuldeep affords accuracy, variation and expertise, whereas Varun brings ‘thriller’.
Meanwhile, his group might have endured a lop-sided document towards India-they have misplaced 32 out of 41 ODIs by the hands of the cricketing giants and-but on the pre-match presser on Wednesday right here, Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto was bullish about his group’s possibilities to upset India straightaway within the CT opener. In a slight jolt to their marketing campaign, Bangladesh misplaced their warm-up match to the Pakistan Shaheens (Pakistan A aspect) right here, but Shanto refused to learn a lot into it, saying that “It won’t have any effect because we saw a lot of things in the practice match. Everybody got a chance to bowl or bat. So, in general, it is for the sake of practice.”
Asked if celebrity allrounder Shakib Al Hasan’s absence on this match was a priority for Bangladesh, Shanto replied with an emphatic: “No.”
Clearly, the Bangladesh skipper is basing his confidence on his group’s new-found, younger tempo battery, headlined by the gifted younger fast Nahid Rana, who’s backed up by the skilled Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed and a slew of helpful allrounders.
Quizzed on whether or not the presence of a number of all-rounders in his group was a bonus for a captain, Shanto mentioned, “All-rounders always balance the team and we have got some good all-rounders. I hope they will perform tomorrow and play well.”
One factor which might make this match completely different for India, and even out issues, is the presence of many Bangladesh followers within the crowd as properly, because of the big variety of expats from that nation. In truth, on Thursday, one can even count on a ratio of ’50-50′ in terms of crowd assist.
Asked if the gang issue might assist his group raise their recreation, a smiling Shanto mentioned, “Yes, obviously I hope so. Wherever we are going to play, there are a lot of supporters. They support us when we win or lose. So, that is a big part of this game and we feel the crowd will come tomorrow and support us.”