DHAKA: India’s fringe players will have a chance to impress the selectors in the build-up to next year’s cricket World Cup on Sunday when they begin a short one-day series tour to Bangladesh.
The visitors are without eight regulars, including captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli, for the three day/night games, which will all be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, are led by Suresh Raina.
When asked whether India were weakened by the absence of their top players, Raina said: “I don’t think so. The young Indian team is coming up. They have done well in the IPL and first-class and so you need to give a chance to youngsters as the World Cup is coming up.
“It’s a great platform for them to cement their places in the Indian team,” he said.
Just four members of the squad — Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Stuart Binny and Wriddhiman Saha — will fly to England later in the month for a marquee tour comprising five Tests, five ODIs and one Twenty20.
The series offers the likes of Pujara, who has six Test centuries but has played in just two one-dayers, a chance to stake their claims to a place in the squad for next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
For Bangladesh, it will be their first series under new coach Chandika Hathurusinghe, who has been handed a two-year contract following the recent departure of Australian Shane Jurgensen.
Hathurusinghe would be keen to start off on a winning note and turn around the fortunes of the perennial whipping boys of international cricket.
The other two matches are on June 17 and 19.
Teams (from): BANGLADESH: Mushfiqur Rahim (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Shamsur Rahman, Mominul Haque, Shakib Al Hasan, Nasir Hossain, Mahmudullah, Mithun Ali, Abdur Razzak, Mashrafe Mortaza, Sohag Gazi, Ziaur Rahman, Al-Amin Hossain, Taskin Ahmed.
INDIA: Suresh Raina (captain), Robin Uthappa, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Wriddhiman Saha, Parvez Rasool, Akshar Patel, R Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Stuart Binny, Mohit Sharma, Amit Mishra.
Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2014
