Bangladesh seek fortune change against India

Colombo: Without many of their big guns, India stuttered and stumbled at various stages of their opening game, also the tournament opener, against Sri Lanka, going down by five wickets.

Next up, they have Bangladesh in front of them, a team missing their biggest star - Shakib Al Hasan - and coming into the tournament on the back of a mediocre run at home, which culminated in a 2-0 Twenty20 International series defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka.

Against Sri Lanka, India were quickly down to 9/2, with Rohit Sharma (0) and Suresh Raina (1), two of the most experienced batsmen in the team, sent back early.

Shikhar Dhawan played a fantastic hand of 90 from just 49 balls, but apart from him, there wasn’t too much of note. Manish Pandey did score 37 in a 95-run stand with Dhawan, but his runs came off 35 balls.

Rishabh Pant just couldn’t get going, scoring a run-a-ball 23 not out, while Dinesh Karthik did throw his bat around towards the end, but didn’t get too much time to cause enough damage.

India may think about fielding seamer Mohammed Siraj in place of Shardul Thakur, who was expensive on Monday. Otherwise, they may remain unchanged - though it is also possible that KL Rahul could enter the top order.

Bangladesh, meanwhile, are a dangerous side, and have the personnel - despite Shakib’s absence - to push the best on their day. The senior batsmen - Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah - must take the lead. But even if they have off days, in Soumya Sarkar and Sabbir Rahman, there is quite a bit of class in the ranks.

In the bowling too, Bangladesh have good firepower in the form of Mustafizur Rahman, who might not be as lethal as he was before his shoulder surgery in 2016 but is still one of the most feared names in the game.

Bangladesh could opt for Nurul Hasan ahead of Sabbir Rahman, while Mehidy Hasan could be picked ahead of a seamer, for his batting. Ariful Haque and Soumya Sarkar are seam-bowling options, if they opt for only two frontline pace bowlers.

Teams from

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant (wk), Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Siraj

Bangladesh: Mahmudullah (c), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Sabbir Rahman, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Abu Hider, Abu Jayed, Ariful Haque, Nazmul Islam, Nurul Hasan, Mehidy Hasan, Liton Das

Pitch and conditions
A standard Khettarama pitch is expected - half decent for batting, but a little on the slow side. It is possible - but not likely - that an evening thunderstorm will blow through.

Stats and trivia

• Bangladesh have lost all five T20s they have played against India.
• India have not lost two T20s in a row since 2016. They have played 19 completed T20s since then.

Match facts
Tuesday 6 March 2018
Start time: 19:00 local (13:30 GMT)