After being rested from the ODI series in New Zealand tour, the senior Indian players – captain Rohit Sharma, vice-captain KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli – return for the 3-ODI series against Bangladesh, which will start on Sunday in Dhaka.
Three other senior and first-choice XI players – Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Shami – are ruled out due to injury, while leg-spinners Yuzendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav are not picked for this rubber. Hardik Pandya is also rested for this series.
India’s squad for Bangladesh ODIs:
Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Shahbaz Ahmed, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen, Umran Malik
Since India is almost at their full strength, this series now kicks off their preparation and planning for the home World Cup in October-November, and there are still some places yet to nail down, thus providing opportunities for non-regulars.
In this article, we predict what possible XI India could field in the 1st ODI vs Bangladesh:
Top three: Rohit Sharma (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli
In all likelihood, India will start with their established top three of Rohit, Dhawan, and Kohli. Because of the focus on Tests and T20Is, Rohit and Kohli have played few ODIs in 2022 – 14 combined between the two – but Dhawan, who plays only ODIs for India, hasn’t been in the best of the touches- averaging 39 at a strike rate of only 75 in 19 ODIs in 2022.
Dhawan’s strike rate has been a concern of late – and his place could soon be challenged by Gill – but a reunion with Sharma might just allow the left-hander to be more of himself and play a bit more aggressively.
Middle-order: Rishabh Pant (wk), KL Rahul
Despite Shreyas Iyer’s terrific ODI form – average of 61 and strike rate of 95 in 12 ODI innings in 2022 – Iyer is likely to be benched as the Indian team management would want to finally give a long run of consistent matches to KL Rahul at number 5, which was tried on a trial basis before the pandemic and he had returned with impressive results at this position.
Rahul has played in only 6 ODIs this year – due to injury and workload management – and averaged a poor 26 at a strike rate of 76.
And while Pant has had a lean run in the last month, it seems that fans have forgotten that it was only in 2 ODI innings before that Pant smashed a century in a series decider against England in Manchester. Pant isn’t going anywhere from the ODI eleven at least for the next 2-3 series.
All-rounders: Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed Axar Patel
Since there is no Hardik Pandya or Deepak Hooda to be the batting all-rounder, it seems that India will have to go a bit lighter in the batting department as they would want to have at least 6 bowling options, as evident from their selection in the last two ODIs in New Zealand where they dropped Samson for Hooda, who can bowl off-spin.
The fact that the Bangladesh surface assists spin, India won’t mind playing the spin trio of Sundar, Axar, and Shahbaz, who has replaced Jadeja in the squad.
Sundar and Axar have had a good 2022 in white-ball cricket with both showing their lower-order hitting abilities at different points in the last 12-13 months, while Shahbaz averages 43 in List-A cricket with the bat. All three are proper all-rounders and provide variations in the spin department.
Pacers: Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj
There could be a toss-up between Chahar and Thakur when India pick their best squad later on with all players available – Chahar is likely to be preferred over Thakur then – but for this 1st ODI, both are expected to start in the XI. Mohammed Siraj has been doing well in white-ball cricket – he has 18 wickets in 12 ODIs this year – and will start tomorrow ahead of Umran and Kuldeep Sen.
