The ODI series between Bangladesh and India kick-started today at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Dhaka. After winning the toss, stand-in-skipper Liton Das asked India to bat. India failed to get the bearings right as they lost 3 early wickets. Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were all dismissed quite early and this shifted the momentum in favour of Bangladesh.
Mehidy Hasan forced Dhawan to play a shot and that got the experience southpaw bowled for just 7 runs. Then, Shakib Al Hasan came into the limelight for bagging the priceless wickets of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli within a span of just 3 balls.
In the 10th over, Kohli played his trademark cover drive off a Shakib delivery but it was caught by Liton Das at cover. The skipper of Bangladesh dived to his right and took a screamer of a catch. The talismanic former skipper of India stood there in disbelief and it took a while for Virat Kohli to process what had just unfolded.
The whole crowd at Dhaka went into a frenzy as they knew the importance of Virat’s wicket. An ODI maestro, if Virat got going, then it would mean doomsday for the Bangladesh cricket team. Virat Kohli was dismissed for 9 runs by Shakib. His innings had just 1 boundary.
Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul tried steadying India’s ship but the former was dismissed by Ebadot Hossain for 24 runs. Iyer scored 2 boundaries in his brief innings. The onus is now on the vice-captain of India, KL Rahul to power Indian to a competitive score.
Notably, India has one batter short in their team as Rishabh Pant was released by the Indian cricket team on medical grounds. The wicket-keeper batter got hit on the chest during a practice session in the nets. India is playing with Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul as their specialized batters. The Men in Blue brought in 3 all-rounders in the form of Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed and Shardul Thakur in the side.
Kuldeep Sen was handed his maiden ODI cap and the Indian team led by Rohit Sharma has reposed faith on the young bowler.
At the time of writing this article, India is batting at 131-4 after 29 overs. KL Rahul is batting on 34*(43) and Washington Sundar is batting on 17*(29).
