India will play Bangladesh in their opening game of the Champions Trophy on February 20 at Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The Men in Blue defeated England 3-0 in the recently concluded ODI series and will carry that confidence into the marquee tournament. However, Jasprit Bumrah’s absence can hurt them as the ace pacer has proven himself as a serial match-winner in any format of the game.
The Men in Blue won the Champions Trophy in 2013 and qualified for the final in 2017, where they suffered a humiliating 180-run defeat to arch-rivals Pakistan. They will be playing the Mohammad Rizwan-led side on February 23 and ahead of that, India will be hoping to register a win and carry the momentum.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, suffered a defeat against Pakistan Shaheens in the warm-up game. Several of their key white-ball cricketers, including Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah have retired from the format, which has hurt them in the format. They had a very rough outing in the 2023 ODI World Cup, finishing eighth, which invited tremendous criticism. Nevertheless, Bangladesh are always motivated to beat India in international cricket and that can give them a necessary morale boost to cause an upset.
Dubai weather for India vs Bangladesh:
There’s no chance of rain but there will be cloud cover throughout the game. Bowling first will be ideal as dew can play a part in the second innings of the game. According to AccuWeather, there’s a 25% chance of precipitation and the wind will gust at 25 km/h. In case it rains, there’s no reserve day for the match.
Full squads:
Bangladesh Squad: Soumya Sarkar, Tanzid Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Jaker Ali (wk), Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Nahid Rana, Mustafizur Rahman, Towhid Hridoy, Rishad Hossain, Parvez Hossain Emon, Nasum Ahmed
India Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar