May 10, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 22, 1428

DHAKA, May 9: Buoyant Bangladesh are determined to translate their World Cup success against India into a bigger celebration when their three-match One-day International (ODI) series opens here on Thursday.

Habibul Bashar’s men hope to take advantage of the sweltering home conditions to further rattle the injury-hit Indians and secure their first series win against an established Test nation.

That would be the perfect farewell gift for their revered coach Dav Whatmore, who ends his four-year tenure with Bangladesh after the Indian tour, which also features two Test matches.India are already a player short ahead of the series after 21-year-old rookie batsman Manoj Tewary hurt his right shoulder while fielding on Tuesday evening and could miss all three games.

Tewari was picked as the bright young hope when the selectors dropped five World Cuppers – Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh and Ajit Agarkar – in a bid to infuse new blood into the one-day side.

Bangladesh have lost 13 of their 15 ODIs against India, but won two of the last four, including a stunning five-wicket win in the World Cup that sent Rahul Dravid's men crashing in the first round.

Bangladesh, who have also secured one-off wins against world champions Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, were optimistic of matching India's challenge.

“We have the belief that we can beat any team if we play to our potential,” said Bashar ahead of the first one-dayer at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

“India are a good side and we can't afford to take them lightly just because we beat them in the World Cup. But playing at home is always an advantage.”

Bangladesh were sweating on the fitness of pace spearhead Mashrafe Mortaza, who hurt his back at training and is being observed closely by the team management.

Bowling on a barren wicket in 38 degrees Celsius heat and stifling humidity will test the stamina of fast bowlers from both sides, leaving the spinners to shoulder the burden of the attack.

“The heat will be a factor for both teams. We are quite used to it,” said Dravid. “We look forward to getting on the park to play some good cricket. Bangladesh are obviously a very improved team and they showed that at the World Cup. They are very competitive, but we will be equal to the challenge.

“We want to put the disappointment of the World Cup behind us and move on,” the Indian captain added.

Both sides will name their playing elevens before the toss on Thursday.

Teams:

Bangladesh (from): Habibul Bashar (captain), Mohammad Ashraful, Javed Omar, Tamim Iqbal, Shahriar Nafees, Aftab Ahmed, Saqibul Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Mortaza, Syed Rasel, Abdur Razzak, Shahadat Hossain, Mohammad Rafique, Farhad Reza.

India (from): Rahul Dravid (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthick, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar.

Umpires: Asoka De Silva (SRI) and Nadir Shah (BAN)

TV umpire: Akhtaruddin Shaheen

Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (SRI).