The second game of the Asia Cup will be played between India and Bangladesh. The match like the rest of them will be played at Dambulla and will see the previous year’s runner-up take on the minnows, who have never got to the final of the tournament before this, in the game.
India has a decent batting side going for them but the problem is with their bowling. The injuries and the lack of form of some of the key fast bowlers, has meant that the side has struggled in the recent past to pick up the wickets, and that as meant that the side hasn’t had the best of the results going for them.
The batting, though stronger than most is shorn of Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh. Tendulkar has opted to rest out of the series, while Yuvraj was dropped from the tournament. Amongst the rest, the series will see the return of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, both of whom have been intermittently injured and out of form and greatly desired that break that they got after the World T20.
For Bangladesh, the story has not been too dissimilar from their last two or three years. Whilst there have been definite improvements, the side has fallen by the wayside in their middle order on more occasions than one. Over-dependence on Tamim Iqbal has made them a one-man batting army, with the likes of Shakib al Hasan and Mohammad Ashraful struggling to regain their glory days.
The track at Dambulla will need to be assessed before hand, but one gets the sense that the spinners will hold the key here. And one also gets the sense that both the sides will want to go into the side with three spinners and not more than two pace bowlers.
India are obvious favourites going into the game (2/11 at Stan James), as compared to the offer of (7/2 at Ladbrokes) for a Bangladeshi win. My money is on India, but they will do well to remember that they had lost to this very team in the 2007 World Cup.
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