India chose to bowl v Bangladesh
After flubbing a 256 chase against Afghanistan on Thursday in Abu Dhabi, Bangladesh were asked to bat in the first game of the Super Four stage by India in Dubai. Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza had followed Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed in criticising the scheduling, which has left the teams travelling back and forth from Abu Dhabi to Dubai for the Super Four stage. India, however, have been exempted from this 90-minute trip.
India’s decision to bowl went well with Mashrafe, who reckoned the pitch might not change much. India’s stand-in captain Rohit Sharma, however, felt the ball might come onto the bat better under lights.
India made one change, recalling Ravindra Jadeja, not the like-for-like replacement in Rajasthan allrounder Deepak Chahar, in place of the injured Hardik Pandya. Jadeja’s inclusion meant India had as many as five spin options in wristspinners Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, left-arm spinner Jadeja, and offspinners Kedar Jadhav and Ambati Rayudu. Before the Asia Cup, Jadeja had last played an ODI in the Caribbean in July 2017.
Bangladesh, who had rested Mushfiqur Rahim and Mustafizur Rahman for Thursday’s inconsequential game against Afghanistan, brought back the pair in place of batsman Mominul Haque and left-arm seamer Abu Hider. Nazmul Hossain Shanto, who had made his ODI debut on Thursday, will continue to open the batting alongside Liton Das.
India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Ambati Rayudu, 4 Dinesh Karthik, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
Bangladesh: 1 Liton Das, 2 Nazmul Hossain, 3 Shakib Al Hasan, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 5 Mohammad Mithun, 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Mosaddek Hossain, 8 Mehidy Hasan, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), 10 Rubel Hossain, 11 Mustafizur Rahman