New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS): Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar feels that Rohit Sharma-led side needs to be cautious about facing Bangladesh in the upcoming two-match Test series, citing the visitors coming on the back of a historic 2-0 series win in Pakistan.
India will begin its home season when it takes on Bangladesh in the Test series opener at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai from September 19-23. It is followed by the two teams playing second Test at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur from September 27 to October 1.
“By beating Pakistan in both the Test matches played in Pakistan, the Bangladesh team have shown that they are a force to reckon with. Even a couple of years back, when India toured Bangladesh, they were given a good fight by the Bangladeshis. Now with the series win against Pakistan under their belt, they are primed to take on India too.”
“They have some fine players in their ranks and some new promising players who no longer have the awe of the opposition that seemed to characterise their early forays into the international game. Now, every team that play them know they can’t put their guard down as they could be knocked down as the Pakistanis found out. It will certainly be a series to look forward to,” wrote Gavaskar in his column for mid-day.
Both Test matches are a part of the ongoing 2023-2025 World Test Championship cycle, where India are on top of the table with 68.52 percentage points, while Bangladesh are at fourth place, with 45.83 percentage points.
The series against Bangladesh also marks the start of a gruelling 10-match Test season for India, which includes hosting New Zealand for a three-match Test series in October-November.
After this, India will fly to Australia for the all-important five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, in a bid to secure a place in the 2025 World Test Championship final, to be held at Lord’s from June 11 to 15 next year.
“India have 10 Test matches coming up over the next four and a half months and they need to win at least five of them to give themselves a good chance to qualify for the World Test Championship final. None of these Tests will be easy and so we could be in for an exciting summer of cricket,” added Gavaskar.
He also feels hosting the Duleep Trophy before the international home season begins was a smart move by BCCI, while admitting the first two rounds didn’t give an insight into how good the batters were in the matches. “It’s never easy for the best of players to go cold into an international competition, never mind the quality of the opposition.”
“This time, having rested all the India bowlers, it won’t be easy to see which batter is good as they would be playing basically second string bowlers. So while the matches would be good tuning for the season to come, the selectors won’t get much insight how good the batters really are.”