BAN vs IND 1st test Match Prediction

BAN vs IND Team Previews

Bangladesh

Bangladesh has had an excellent year of cricket and won matches against some big cricketing nationals. The most famous of those successes was a Test series victory over New Zealand in New Zealand. Bangladesh is also coming into this match with an ODI series win against India and so it will be reasonably confident about its chances. 

Bangladesh's Test match playbook at home has traditionally been all about its spinners. The team asks for turning tracks and then packs its team with three spinners to attack the opposition. We expect a similar approach from them in this match. 

Shakib Al Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, and Taijul Islam will all find a place in the playing eleven and bowl the bulk of the overs. We think Taskin Ahmed and Ebadot Hossain will both play the first Test as well thanks to the extra pace that they can generate. 

In home conditions, this is a very useful attack. 

Getting enough runs on the board is going to be the big question. Even in the ODI series victory, Bangladesh's top order performed quite poorly and was bailed out by the heroics of the lower-order. Litton Das, Mominul Haque, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Najmul Hossain Shanto have done well against the Indian attack during their careers. 

If they can find the temperament to score big runs, Bangladesh will be in with a real chance. 

India

India will be without Rohit Sharma for this match. It is going to be led by KL Rahul instead and the team that takes the field will be a lot different from what we have seen int he recent past. KL Rahul and Shubman Gill are expected to open the batting with Cheteshwar Pujara at 3, Virat Kohli at 4, Shreyas Iyer at 5, and Rishab Pant at 6. Number seven could be Axar Patel followed by R Ashwin and Jaydev Unadkat. 

This gives India a fairly long batting lineup since Unadkat can bat quite well also. 

The trick will be picking the remaining two bowlers. We think Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammad Siraj will find a place but the balance could vary depending on the conditions. 

India has no option but to go for the win. That kind of clarity can be quite beneficial for the team and we hope to see some aggressive intent. The strength of this lineup is the batting but the spin bowling unit is also very good. We don't think India would mind a turning track at all. In fact, anything apart from a flat batting track where forcing a result is difficult will be okay for India. 

We think the Indian bowling attack is more than capable of picking up 20 wickets. Ashwin will be the main threat but Siraj could be one to watch out for as well. Among the batters, we think Shreyas Iyer has the game to be able to succeed in Bangladeshi conditions.