India team hits the nets in Mirpur on arrival in Dhaka
MIRPUR: The Indian cricket team got down to work soon after landing here on Monday for the short series against Bangladesh, sweating it out in a gruelling twohour net session at the Sher-eBangla Stadium.
The side led by Kohli arrived here by a morning flight from Kolkata and they hit the nets at the Stadium in the afternoon.
The Indians will take on the hosts in a one off Test starting on Wednesday followed by a threeODI series. “Since we arrived and the boys wanted to practice, it was decided to train at the Shere-Bangla Stadium as Bangladesh were training at Fatullah.
“Tomorrow, we will be training at Fatullah,” BCCI’s administrative manager Biswarup Dey told PTI. Since Fatullah, which is in Narayanganj district takes about an hour and half to reach from Dhaka city, where the team is staying, it was decided to hit the straps rightaway. The team manager confirmed that all 14 members are fit and Wriddhiman Saha, who has sustained a hit on the chest during the final training session in Kolkata is absolutely fine and also trained with other members.
The Indian team will be concentrating on getting the bowling combination right.
While Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh are almost certain to play, it will be upto Kohli and Team Director Ravi Shastri to decide on whether India will go with four or five bowlers. If they go with five bowlers, the toss-up will be between speedster Varun Aaron and leg-spinner Karn Sharma.
Opener K L Rahul, originally named in the Test squad, was ruled out with fever and the management decided against his replacement. India have won six Tests out of the seven they have played against Bangladesh with one turning out to be a draw.
All the five-day games have been played in Bangladesh and the last time two teams met in a bilateral series was in 2009-10 when India won 2-0.