India kick off their long and hectic Test season at home against Bangladesh. The Men in Blue have one eye on next year’s World Test Championship final, and Rohit Sharma and Co have their task cut out.
India host Bangladesh and New Zealand at home before heading to Australia in hopes of consolidating their position at the top of the WTC 2023/25 points table by starting strong at home.
Ahead of the first Test between India and Bangladesh, here’s our match preview and predictions.
Also read: Indian national cricket team sponsors 2024 | Bangladesh Cricket Board Sponsors 2024
What will make Sharma happy is that he has all the big guns available to get the bumper red-ball season underway. The Test series against Bangladesh will also be Gautam Gambhir’s first red-ball series as Team India coach. With Rishabh Pant returning to the red-ball setup for the first time since his accident, Sharma and Gambhir have a proper batting option lower down the order.
The Chennai pitch is known to provide a lot of assistance to the spinners, so it will be crucial to see how the likes of Yashasvi Jaisawal, Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, and KL Rahul, all of whom have found found spin hard to deal with of late, tackle it. We may even see India go into the game with three spinners; Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are locked in, though Gambhair also has Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel at his disposal.
On the other hand, Bangladesh are high on confidence, coming off a historic series win in Pakistan. With the bat, their captain Najmul Hossain Shanto, along with Litton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim and the ever-reliable Shakib Al Hasan will be expected to turn up, while Mehidy Hasan Miraz is slowly turning into a handy all-rounder for the Bangla Tigers.
The Bangladeshi bowling unit has many promising prospects, including the young Hasun Mahmud and Nahid Rana, both of whom were brilliant in the Pakistan tour and will have a lot of eyes on them.
A turning pitch in Chennai might not be the worst thing for the visitors, but India still hold the upper hand in this encounter and are likely to start the series with a win.
Fantasy XI: Rohit Sharma, Shubhman Gill, Virat Kohli, Litton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim, KL Rahul, Shakib Al Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Hasan Mahmud
Venue: Chennai
Winners Prediction: India
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