India is going to play against Bangladesh at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Thursday (September 19) in a two-match Test series. The pair have played since 1995 when each nation had played 7 Tests against each other and out of those only two matches have finished with draws, so this indicates that it won’t be easy for Bangladesh as they need to face Indian players who have 13 victories from 15 encounters till date under leadership of Rohit Sharma
India confronted England 4 -1 in the previous Test series within its territory while Bangladesh visited Pakistan for a historic 2-0 series win held at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium itself.
Karthik who happened to be an ex-India wicketkeeper-batsman analyzed the prospects of this Chennai Test series but was of the opinion that despite being victorious against Pakistan; Bangladesh would find it impossible to compete with India and the home side would win comfortably.
“I personally don’t believe it. To beat India in their land is enormous task, Bangladeshi cricketers have shown some good performances in Pakistan; nevertheless, I doubt if this will be a problem for India when facing Bangladesh,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz’s HeyCB with DK program.
Karthik, a former wicketkeeper-batsman turned commentator at 39 years age was also quizzed about the most likely playing XI for India in the first Test match. In his opinion such a strategy would keep India’s focus on pace-oriented pitches despite being at home because they had to remember how the Australian series is coming up next, hence he named three fast bowlers and two spinners in his eleven.
“Initially I feel as though what India would do is go for little bit greater pace oriented types of surface knowing it’s always good way of beating back and also these guys are preparing ahead of starting Australia Test series later this year so should be on their minds no doubt about it but only two spinners will play Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja along with three fast bowlers,” he stated.
Apart from world No. 1 Test bowler Ashwin and world No1 all-rounder Jadeja Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav also made an early journey to join team India ahead of the first match.