Bangladesh v India, 1st ODI, Chittagong

A time for change

Preview by Anand Vasu in Chittagong

December 22, 2004

Ganguly and Tendulkar could make way for the less experienced © Getty Images

It's a time for change. Away with the whites and on with the pyjamas. After their sweep in the Test series, India are now all set to go into the three one-dayers in a mood to experiment and yet seriously aim for a double-sweep. Bangladesh cannot afford a remotely similar approach. In the Tests they struggled, but the one-dayers should suit their temperament better - Bangladesh know well that it is easier to stun the opposition with an hour or two of good cricket than sustain an assault.

During his pre-match press conference, Sourav Ganguly emphatically stated that all the newcomers would get a chance. "They will get to play all three matches," said Ganguly. "We will swap around with the senior members of the team - people like myself, Sehwag, Sachin, Rahul, Zaheer and Harbhajan. We will rotate and make sure that the guys who are new in the side get to play all three matches. We will decide the combination tonight - whom to rest and whom to play."

From all indications, the MA Aziz Stadium will serve up a better pitch for the first one-dayer, on Thursday, than it did for the Test match. An absence of bounce and lateral movement for the fast bowlers rendered that pitch such a batting beauty that it ended interest in the match as a contest early on. Apart from Mashrafe Mortaza, none of the Bangladesh fast bowlers had the zip to trouble the batsmen, and this tilted the scales irreversibly in India's favour.

But if Bangladesh believe that India's move to experiment with new faces in the party will help even things out, they will be sadly mistaken. The new men all have one thing in common - a desperation to catch the eye. Any performances they register will be diluted by the fact that they came against Bangladesh, so they need to try doubly hard. Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman, two stalwarts, have been rested against their will. This can only mean that the selectors have left the door ajar, giving the likes of Sridharan Sriram, Dinesh Mongia, MS Dhoni and Joginder Sharma a chance to enter the big league.

Mongia is coming off a blinder of a season in domestic cricket in England, while Sriram has had several strong seasons with Tamil Nadu and India A. Dhoni has runs and tidy, effervescent glovework with India A to show off, while Sharma's last two Ranji Trophy matches yielded one ten-wicket haul and one century. Yuvraj Singh may be well-entrenched in the shorter version of the game, but he is desperate to make it back into the Test team, and strong performances in the one-dayers won't hurt his chances at all. Mohammad Kaif is another who is happy that the Tests are out of the way. When the one-dayers start his status is automatically upgraded from enthusiastic hopeful to integral cog.

Bangladesh, for their part, have recalled Khaled Mahmud - and left out Mortaza and Javed Omar from the 14 - in the 12 they announced ahead of the first match. But for them, this Indian tour is fading fast already. In 98 one-day internationals, they have won just five, against Pakistan, Kenya, Scotland, Hong Kong and, of course, Zimbabwe, who are the next team to tour Bangladesh. Their eyes, despite what anyone may say, are firmly on that series. Until then, the three one-dayers against India will merely serve to see how much they can stretch themselves.

Bangladesh (from) 1 Nafis Iqbal, 2 Rajin Saleh, 3 Habibul Bashar (capt), 4 Mohammad Ashraful, 5 Aftab Ahmed, 6 Khaled Mashud (wk), 7 Mushfiqur Rahman, 8 Khaled Mahmud, 9 Manjarul Islam, 10 Mohammad Rafique, 11 Tapash Baisya, 12 Nazmul Hossain.

India (from) 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 4 Rahul Dravid, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 Mohammad Kaif, 7 MS Dhoni (wk), 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Ajit Agarkar, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 Zaheer Khan, 12 Murali Kartik, 13 Dinesh Mongia, 14 Sridharan Sriram, 15 Joginder Sharma.

Anand Vasu is assistant editor of Cricinfo and will be following the Indian team throughout their tour of Bangladesh.

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