India are the world's top Test team, have a reputation of being virtually invincible at home and are looking to seal a spot in WTC Final before the big series Down Under. The pressure is on the hosts as Bangladesh look to put up a challenge and continue their recent run of success..
. CHENNAI: "The No. 1 team in the world.
" There's a nice ring to the phrase, especially when it comes as a compliment from opponents Bangladesh, who are considered upstarts and are coming to India on the back of their most significant success in the longer version. But then such a tag has its own set of pitfalls. A single false step can raise a tsunami of criticism and that's what India have to guard against when they take on Bangladesh at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Thursday.
It's a long road to the World Test Championship Final and with India looking to seal the spot before the Australia series, every match is a must-win. If pedigree is taken into consideration, Bangladesh shouldn't be a massive challenge at home, but let's go back to Dec 2022 for some perspective. On a spin-friendly track in Mirpur, India were very close to a defeat chasing 145 in the second innings of the second Test.
Had it not been for the dropped catch of No. 9 batter R Ashwin , the World No. 1s might well have lost a Test which they eventually won by three wickets.
On that day, the finger-spin trio of Shakib Al Hasan , Taijul Islam and Mehidy Hasan Miraz were very close to wreaking havoc on a black-soil track that India usually love playing on. All the three Bangladesh spinners are available in this series as well and India have tried to ensure that they don't get too much help from the conditions. Hence, a red-soil pitch has been dished out at Chepauk where bounce can be a crucial issue.
Coach Gautam Gambhir spoke about the quality of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja and how they can be effective on any track on the first day of a Test. While it will be interesting to see if the new coach decides to play Kuldeep Yadav as the third spinner ahead of medium-pacer Akash Deep, the one man who can really make a difference to this game is Jasprit Bumrah . The paceman has shown time and time again that he can take the pitch out of the equation and Gambhir feels it is "more than a luxury" to have him in the team.
"It's just his hunger to play every format. The best part is that he wants to play as much Test cricket as he can. He is definitely the No.
1 bowler in the world and it's an honour to have him in this side," Gambhir said. As confident as Bangladesh are going into this series after their win in Pakistan, one shouldn't forget that they have serious issues in their batting. Even in the second Test that they won in Rawalpindi last month, they were reduced to 26-6 on a perfectly good batting track.
It was the partnership of Litton Das and Miraj that kept them in the game, but Bumrah and Co. have too much quality to let go of an opportunity of that magnitude. The fact that the series will be played with SG balls should also give the Indian bowlers a distinct advantage.
Bangladesh play with the Kookaburra at home and the amount of reverse swing that can be generated with SG balls may just be a severe test for Najmul Hossain Shanto's boys. Shanto knows that and they have tried to prepare for it. "In the camp in Dhaka followed by the three days of practice here in Chennai, we have trained with SG balls.
We have tried our best to get used to it. More importantly, there's no point thinking too much about it," Shanto said, adding that they will be thinking about the result in the final session of the fifth day. That's quite a claim in itself.
Not too many in Chennai believe the game will go beyond Saturday and if Bangladesh can truly stretch the Test that far, all those fans who are running around for tickets of the first two days will breathe a sigh of relief..
