India vs Bangladesh T20 World Cup 2024
Bangladesh will find it tough to overcome Team India in their second Super Eight match in Antigua as they already struggle to stay alive in the T20 World Cup 2024. The turnaround time from their loss to Australia on Thursday night is brief, but they would not have had to hop islands like India, who arrived hours after comprehensively defeating Afghanistan in Barbados.
The ‘Suryakumar Yadav’ factor
Suryakumar Yadav has steered India out of trouble twice in the last two games. Shivam Dube is under increasing pressure, if not totally from within the team, to perform well as the spin enforcer. Saturday’s match against a quality spin attack could be another difficult test.
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Bangladesh’s strength
For a long time, Bangladesh relied on their abundance of left-arm spinners to perform on slow and low pitches. They now have a varied attack and two trump cards in Mustafizur Rahman and Rishad Hossain, the legspinner. They will be the first to confess that the hitters haven’t provided enough margin for their magicians thus far in the competition.
How to tackle Bumrah & Co?
Bangladesh’s batters may face even more difficult challenges against India, as they will face Jasprit Bumrah and an in-form Arshdeep Singh. India is also enjoying the benefits of having a completely healthy Hardik Pandya, who allows them to play either a third seamer or a third spinner in Kuldeep Yadav. So Bangladesh’s hitters have their work cut out for them.
What to look forward to?
Apart from the match-ups, this rivalry has always had an added extra edge. It all started with a contentious no-ball call during the 2015 World Cup, which enraged the whole of Bangladesh. Then Mustafizur-Dhoni occurred. The turmoil continued throughout the 2016 T20 World Cup in Bengaluru, peaking during the Nidahas Trophy in 2018.
Since then, every match has had something riding on it, and while the players may claim to be immune to the “noise,” the ardent fans on both sides have ensured that this rivalry has taken on enormous significance.
