Finance
Today India’s stand-in captain K.L. Rahul won the toss and chose to bat first against Bangladesh at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Kolkata.
After winning the toss for the first time on this tour, Rahul said India will field three spinners — Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, and Kuldeep Yadav — as well as two fast bowlers, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj.
“Looks like a good wicket and we’ll put the runs on the board and use the footmarks later on to get wickets. They’ve been a few injuries but that gives an opportunity to the other guys,” he said.
Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan stated if he had won the toss, he would also have opted to bat first. “But we’ll try to get some early wickets. If you got into the history (of this ground), more wickets have fallen on the opening day (than on the final). We will try to get early wickets and put them under pressure,” he said.
“It’s a little difficult (to adapt from white-ball cricket), we’re playing a Test after a big gap of five months but we’ve prepared well. This is an important series hopefully we can put some WTC points,” he added.
For Bangladesh, top-order batter Zakir Hasan, who scored a heroic 173 in a four-day match against India A in Cox’s Bazar, is making his Test debut, making him the country’s 101st cricketer in this format.
While India will start Rahul and Shubman Gill, Bangladesh has dropped Mahmudul Hasan Joy in favor of Zakir and Najmul Hossain Shanto.
India is playing Tests after five months, while Bangladesh is playing after nearly six months. To be in contention for the World Test Championship final, India must win their remaining six Tests (or even five victories with a draw) – two in Bangladesh and four at home against Australia in February-March next year to be in contention for the World Test Championship final to be played at The Oval in June 2023.
Playing XIs:
India: Shubman Gill, K.L. Rahul (c), Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
Bangladesh: Zakir Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan (c), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Yasir Ali, Nurul Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain
Source:OCN
