Virat Kohli’s proactive and aggressive style of leadership will be tested when India take on sprightly underdogs Bangladesh in the one-off Test starting here on Wednesday. Kohli was anointed with full-time Test captaincy after Mahendra Singh Dhoni quit in the middle of the Australia series. The Bangladesh Test match will be, in essence, the start of a life without Dhoni for the team, which comprises cricketers of an average age of 26.
There will also be a sense of deja vu when Kohli walks out alongside his Bangladeshi counterpart Mushfiqur Rahim at the Khan Saheb Osman Ali Stadium on Wednesday. One of India’s most successful captain Sourav Ganguly also started as a full-time captain against Bangladesh some 15 years back in a one-off Test match that was played at Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka.
Only difference is, this is Kohli’s third Test as the skipper while that match marked Ganguly’s captaincy debut. For Kohli, as he starts a new chapter in his so far glittering career, it will also be a test of his tactical acumen as he would need to decide on whether India would go with six batsmen and four bowlers with a specialist wicketkeeper or with an additional bowler to ensure that taking 20 wickets is not a problem.
On paper, it’s another David versus Goliath battle with India having won six out of the seven Test matches between the two countries. Bangladesh drew just one in Chittagong in 2007 with the help of rain. But Bangladesh have been on the rise after a lion-hearted show in the World Cup, where they disposed off England to make it to the last-eight stage.
The World Cup was followed by handing Pakistan a shocking 3-0 ODI series defeat and drawing a Test match, which has not only raised the profile of the team but also earned them a bit more respect from the opposition teams than what they had been used to getting earlier. Also the ‘firm belief’ of their supporters that a controversial ‘No-Ball’ in that fateful World Cup quarter-final match against India robbed them off a fair chance, will also add spice to the contest.
Kohli would not like to take the next door neighbours to be the proverbial ‘banana peel’ that minnows often turn out to be in such mismatched contests. Kl Rahul’s loss could well be Shikhar Dhawan’s gain as the left-hander would be eager to get his place back in the playing XI after he was dropped during Sydney Test due to a string of poor scores before that.
With no potent swing bowler like a James Anderson or Stuart Broad in opposition ranks, neither a speed merchant like Mitchell Johnson or Mitchell Starc, Dhawan might find it easy to negotiate the Bangladeshi bowlers on a track which is not expected to produce any lateral movement. Ajinkya Rahane, India’s most consistent Test player over the year, would like to spike up his Test average by a few points after having done all the hard work getting those runs in adverse conditions across the cricketing globe in SA, NZ, England and Australia.
For Wriddhiman Saha, it will be a golden opportunity to make the Test wicketkeeper spot his own after being Dhoni’s understudy for nearly five years. Inarguably, India’s best glovesman, Wriddhiman will like to score a few runs so that there is no competition as to who will don the big gloves in the longer version.
In the bowling department, all eyes will be on comeback man Harbhajan Singh, back after being in the wilderness for more than two years. Along with Ashwin, Harbhajan might prove to be a handful for the opposition team that will have as many as five to six left-handers in their ranks. Ishant Sharma is a certainty as far as the fast bowling unit is concerned. While Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s all-round ability make him a handy player, Kohli’s penchant for speed makes both Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron more valuable to the team.
Separate meetings for bowlers, batsmen; 1 hr net to beat heat
The Indian team on Wednesday rested their bowlers during the hour-long net session at the Khan Saheb Osman Ali Stadium on the eve of their one-off Test match against Bangladesh. “The humidity is killing and the coaching staff thought that the boys should not stress themselves too much in this heat and hence we trained for an hour today. The bowling unit was rested as they will have a job in hand tomorrow,” a source close to the team management said. Another interesting aspect in team’s planning and preparation was separate meetings for the batsmen as well as the bowlers.
“The bowling unit had a separate meeting where coach Bharath Arun addressed them while the batsmen were addressed by Ravi Shastri. The boys are charged up despite the heat and humidity. The batsmen and the bowlers have been specifically briefed about the basic strategy going into the match,” the source informed.