Bangladesh will take on mighty India on Thursday in their fourth game of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup at Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune, reports BSS.
The match starts at 2.30 PM (Bangladesh Time).
The Tigers began their World Cup mission with a six-wicket win over Afghanistan but tasted crushing 137-run and eight-wicket defeats to England and New Zealand respectively in the last two matches.
India in contrast are flying high, winning their firs three matches quite convincingly. They began the mission with a six-wicket win over Australia before beating Afghanistan by eight wickets and archrivals Pakistan by seven wickets.
On paper and considering recent performance India are favourite to win the game but Bangladesh will be oozed with confidence due to their recent dominance against the sub-continent rivals.
In the last four matches between the two sides, Bangladesh won three, including an Asia Cup game in Sri Lanka just ahead of the World Cup. The two sides in fact met only four times after the 2019 World Cup.
Since their landmark victory in 2007 World Cup against India, Bangladesh became highly charged up when they meet India in any game in any part of the World. It's not that they won all of the matches but somehow they were able to panic India by pushing them vehemently in every matches.
In World Cup, the two teams met four times with India winning three. After 2007 World Cup, which gave the birth of Bangladesh's cricketing stars like Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Bangladesh could never beat India in this showcase event.
But many Bangladeshi still believer the Tigers could have won the 2015 World Cup game had umpire not given Rohit Sharma a reprieve in a delivery of fast bowler Rubel Hossain which was called 'no ball.'
The 'no ball' issue imprinted a permanent scratch in Bangladeshi fans heart and took the rivalry between the two sides in new but ugly height. In 2019 World Cup, Bangladesh also pushed India before losing the game by 28 runs.
However it is believed their recent dominance and rivalry against India would help Bangladesh to bring out their best against the World Cup hosts as they are trying to bounce back into the winning way.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
