India Vs Bangladesh: Five Things We Learned From First T20I

It’s not every day that the Indian fans talk about their team’s defeat in their own backyard. India boasts a pretty good record against the opposition teams at home and especially against Bangladesh in the truncated version of the game. Before the T20I opener, India held 100% record, winning all of the 8 encounters against Bangladesh, giving them no snippet of breathing space to go for the kill over the years.

However, that wasn’t meant to be after the result which indicated that Bangladesh have clearly evolved into a challenging side. Bangladesh did keep the Indian batsmen in check most of the times barring the last couple of overs which went in India’s favour.

Thanks to batting exploits from Washington Sundar and Krunal Pandya in the fag end of the overs who helped the team get to a tricky 148/6 in their allotted quota of overs. In reply, Bangladesh aced the run-chase by 7 wickets with 3 balls to spare. Mushfiqur Rahman was the main man for his team, scoring an unbeaten 60 off 43 with the help of 8 fours and 1 six.

These are 5 things we learned from the first T20I between India and Bangladesh:

#1. Bangladesh can pose a serious threat to India

The Tigers eventually roared after a string of painful defeats and haemorrhage over the years against India. With painstaking attention to detail, they have shown what they are capable of pulling off the ropes from the jaws of the defeat. Having lost 8 T20I matches in a row, they got off the mark in style with a blazing half-century from Mushfiqur and a supportive knock from Sowmya Sarkar (39).

#2. Khaleel Ahmed’s failed to hold his nerves

It was indeed a hard Kotla wicket and there were hardly any big cracks or say dryness on the track. However, there was a hint of green tinge which gave the batsmen an upper hand over the bowlers as the ball came on to the bat nicely. The game saw a turning point when Mushfiqur smashed 4 fours in a row off Khaleel Ahmed’s bowling and took the game away from the Indians.

#3. Rishabh Pant’s bizarre DRS call

Rishabh Pant made the headlines for a strange DRS call, which left Indian captain Rohit Sharma in splits. The captain gave a sarcastic smile at Pant after a DRS call did not go India’s way. During the 10th over of Bangladesh’s innings, Rishabh Pant had convinced Rohit Sharma to go for a DRS considering that Soumya Sarkar was well set at the moment.

Unfortunately, it was a wrong call. The UltraEdge technology showed nothing as the ball went past the bat. Apart from this blunder, Rishabh Pant cost Shikhar Dhawan’s wicket by running him out in the first innings as it was never a second run there. Dhawan who was looking good made his way back to the pavilion for a handy 41 (3 fours, 1 six).

#4. India’s top-order woes in T20Is

India may be good in stitching good partnerships in ODIs and Tests but in T20Is, it is quite the opposite. The liaison hasn’t been consistent and losing wicket early on in the game is an existing issue in the Indian national cricket team. The last 5 opening partnerships for India serve as a testament to the fact.

Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma – 67 vs West Indies
Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul – 10 vs West Indies
Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma – 33 vs South Africa
Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma – 22 vs South Africa
Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma – 10 vs Bangladesh

#5. India’s death bowling looks jaded without Jasprit Bumrah:

India played against Bangladesh with a fair few raw ingredients which lacked enough spice and flavour to outsmart Bangladeshi batsmen. They totally lacked a weapon like Jasprit Bumrah in the death overs and without him, it looked nothing more than ordinary because of the bowler’s inability to break the flow.