Fearsome meet fearless

Just two days and eight years ahead of the 2007 ouster in the Caribbean, India meet Bangladesh in yet another World Cup, this time in the quarterfinals at the MCG on Thursday.  In these eight years, Bangladesh have grown in the game and India have learnt well from that ungainly defeat in the group stages. They defeated Bangladesh comprehensively in Dhaka in 2011, won the World Cup that year and are now in the competition defending their title with a full marks display thus far.

On paper, it looks as much an uneven contest as it was in 2007. India are the experienced superstars in all departments, and Bangladesh, a young and inexperienced team of spurts, playing fearlessly on the idiom of ‘nothing to lose so everything to win’. In between all these stark differentials, there is also the fact that under MS Dhoni’s leadership, Team India have learnt to plan and, more importantly, execute those plans well.

India’s makeover in all departments has become the talk of the Cup. The pace attack has shaped up out of the blue, not allowed a single 300-plus score and taken all the 10 wickets every time the squad has hit the middle. Their spinners in Ashwin and Jadeja are in attack mode to maximum impact and part-time bowlers like Suresh Raina have completed their assignments to instruction. 

Add to this the flowering batting line-up with Dhawan back in action and Dhoni’s mind ticking from behind the wickets, and there seems to be little out of place for the rivals to exploit or build on. Besides, at the MCG, as Suresh Raina pointed out on match eve, India has had more exposure than any other team in the run-up to the World Cup. So conditions, too, have been studied and mastered well so far, going by the huge win India recorded against the South Africans in their second Group Stage match on this ground.

On their part, Bangladesh have been in the form of their life, gelling as a team under their inspirational skipper Mashrafe Mortaza and playing with the fire of aspirational youthfulness. They have found their very own superstar in Mahmudullah Riyad who has made history by scoring two back-to-back centuries in the World Cup, the first for Bangladesh, that too against good cricketing nations like England and New Zealand.

They have also found their pace in Taskin and Rubel who have, so far, given away nothing but excellent spells and a clutter of wickets. “2007 won’t help; 2011, when we lost, that doesn’t help either. In short-form cricket, what is important is how you do on the day. If we play to our potential and India have a bad day it can be anybody’s day,” Mashrafe warned a day before the match. 

Though Bangladesh acknowledge collectively that India are difficult team to beat, especially in the form and mindset they are currently in, it is the probably unavoidable complacency that comes in, which turns to be dangerous.  An interesting aside here would be to point out that it was against minnows — Ireland and Zimbabwe — that Team India conceded the most runs in the Group Stage and was tested in its bowling, batting and also fielding — the three departments that have also been in the news for having changed dramatically.

But then as Raina said, “The main World Cup is going to start for us tomorrow (Thursday) and in a quarterfinal, there is no margin for error.” On such a crucial occasion, there’s hardly a chance that someone as practical as Dhoni will let himself or his boys skid even if it’s a tricky terrain.