🏏 Bangladesh tour of India 2024: 1st T20 Ind vs BD at Gwalior

🏏 Bangladesh tour of India 2024: 1st T20 on October 6th in Gwalior at 7pm IST🏏

Gwalior takes centre stage as youthful India prepare for experienced Bangladesh

Harshit Rana or Mayank Yadav is likely to make his international debut for India.

A T20I series in the middle of a Test season can be a hard sell but both India and Bangladesh will have their own priorities in the three-match series starting in Gwalior on Sunday. While India have rested their key players - and will additionally be without Shivam Dube who was ruled out with injury on Saturday* - the ones on the fringes will look to establish themselves as back-ups and will also be keen to increase their IPL value.

Suryakumar Yadav leads a side that's less experienced than Bangladesh in T20Is, but his players are more skilled and versatile than Bangladesh's in the format. Suryakumar, Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh are among the experienced players in India's side, but even the ones with less than ten T20I caps are stars. Newcomers Mayank Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana are the uncapped players, while Abhishek Sharma, who made his debut against Zimbabwe in July, has a chance to add to his five T20I caps.

The home side are also without most of their first-choice fast bowlers, which could open up debuts for Mayank Yadav, who hit 150kph for Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL, and Harshit, who won IPL 2024 with Kolkata Knight Riders. Hardik offers them seam-bowling support while Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi and the returning Varun Chakravarthy make up the spin group.

As for Bangladesh, who don't play enough T20Is, this is a huge opportunity. From developing their game against a strong opposition, to having an outside chance of being picked in the IPL, there will be excitement in the visitors' camp.

The likes of Mahmudullah, Mustafizur Rahman, Litton Das, Taskin Ahmed and Mahedi Hasan, all of whom have at least fifty T20Is under their belt, have to put their act together if Bangladesh are to beat India. Even relative newcomers like Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Rishad Hossain and Tanzid Hasan have growing reputations. All of this is vital when they know who is no longer in their line-up.

Shakib Al Hasan, who is arguably Bangladesh's greatest cricketer, has announced his retirement from Tests and T20Is.

In the spotlight: Sanju Samson and Rishad Hossain

With India having picked just one opener in Abhishek, Sanju Samson will be pushed up to the top to partner Abhishek - Suryakumar confirmed as much on match eve. Samson has ducks in his last two T20I knocks, against Sri Lanka, but it will be his IPL form from earlier this year, that will give him and the team management the confidence going into this series. Samson scored 531 runs in 15 innings at a strike rate of 153.46 in IPL 2024, once again underlining his ability in the format, something that he would like to bring into his international game quickly.

Legspinner Rishad Hossain finished the T20 World Cup earlier this year with 14 wickets, level with Rashid Khan, at an average of 13.85 and economy rate of 7.76. He emerged as Bangladesh's top wicket-taker in the tournament has now comes the second act: impressing IPL scouts in India. It will be tough to back up such a strong performance and even in the past many Bangladesh players have struggled to build on early success. Rishad has played just one competitive game since the 2024 T20 World Cup but has since been training in Dhaka to get up to speed.

Form guide

India WWWWW (last five T20Is, most recent first)

BangladeshLLLWW

Team news: Mayank Yadav or Harshit Rana could be in line for debut

India have a new-look top order and seam attack as a number of regulars are missing from their T20I squad. They have brought in Tilak Varma for the injured Dube, but it's likely Nitish Kumar Reddy will slot into his place in the XI. Tearaway Mayank didn't train much in the lead up to the series opener which could mean a debut for Harshit on Sunday.

India (probable): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Riyan Parag, 5 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Rinku Singh, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Harshit Rana/Mayank Yadav, 11 Arshdeep Singh

Mehidy Hasan Miraz returns to the Bangladesh T20I side to play as a batting allrounder. Parvez Hossain Emon could be picked ahead of Tanzid Hasan.

Bangladesh (probable): 1 Litton Das (wk), 2 Parvez Hossain Emon, 3 Tanzid Hasan, 4 Najmul Hossain Shanto (capt), 5 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 6 Towhid Hridoy, 7 Mahmudullah, 8 Rishad Hossain, 9 Tanzim Hasan Sakib, 10 Taskin Ahmed, 11 Mustafizur Rahman

Pitch and conditions: Good weather on Sunday evening

The pitch is bit of an unknown, given this will be the first international at the Shrimant Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium, where there is extra security measures in place given some calls for a boycott.

Teams batting first in night games in the last 12 months in India have averaged in excess of 190 runs, with four out of the eight teams scoring 200-plus batting first.

The weather is likely to be slightly cooler than the usual daytime heat on Sunday evening.

Stats and Trivia

This is the first international match at the Shrimant Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium, which is located 12km to the west of Gwalior city. The last match held in the region was in February 2010 when Sachin Tendulkar struck the first double-hundred in ODIs, at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium.

Bangladesh (644 caps) have a more experienced T20I squad than India (389 caps) in this series.

At 37 years and 180 days, Shakib recently became Bangladesh's oldest Test cricketer. Mahmudullah, part of this T20 squad, is second oldest in all formats for Bangladesh, now playing at the age of 38. Overall, Jahangir Shah is Bangladesh's oldest international cricketer who played an ODI against New Zealand at the age of 41.

Thanks for the tag Soni.

May the best team win.

Cheers..

Quote

"From this series, you will see our players trying to play with a new approach. Everyone will play to win. I think the players that are here [for the series], and four or five others, will be the ones playing the 2026 World Cup. So, I think from this series, our preparations will properly begin."

Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto on their early preparation for the next T20 World Cup

"It's a good opportunity [for newcomers]. They have good potential; they have made impact for their state, their franchises. If they get a chance, I hope they would perform the same because there is no need to do anything different."

Suryakumar Yadav on Mayank Yadav, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy

*The preview was updated when news of Dube's injury came in.

Less than three months ago, Abhishek Sharma was at the pinnacle of his young career. "Today's my day," he had declared after smashing a 46-ball hundred in only his second international appearance. And he did that while opening the batting with his friend and Punjab teammate from U-12 days, Shubman Gill, who incidentally was also captaining the side. Fittingly, it was Gill's bat with which he reached the milestone.

But cricket has a way of turning fortunes around quickly. Just two days later, he had to move down the order to accommodate Yashasvi Jaiswal, the incumbent opener, and unfortunately that was it for Abhishek's short stint at the top. He wasn't even in the Indian squad for India's tour of Sri Lanka later that month.

Abhishek is back again in the spotlight and this very much feels like his moment. The same can be said for a lot others in this 15-man squad who have on occasions been rendered to the sidelines because someone better was in the way. This is their chance to bubble to the top. Varun Chakaravarthy, who is yet to play an international match on home soil, comes in with a point to prove whereas Sanju Samson, forever battling for a middle-order spot, gets a temporary new lease at the top of the order. Riyan Parag finally earns his place and Ravi Bishnoi would want to step up as the lead legspinner and emerge from the long shadows of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

Which is why those struggling to see the relevance of this three-match T20I series, that's buried deep in India's Test season, are missing the point. Indian cricket runs deep and opportunities like these, to make a claim, can be few and far in between. Just ask Abhishek.

"It's a great opportunity for youngsters. Whenever they have played for there states, they have done well. There's nothing different to do here," India captain Suryakumar Yadav said on the eve of the first T20I.

On the surface, this series might not offer India much to gain. After all, they have only ever lost to Bangladesh once in 14 attempts. But what's also true is that this is a very young Indian side which is out to answer some questions about itself, and they are set to test their might against an opposition that outnumbers their experience by 250 international caps. It doesn't happen very often in Indian cricket.

"We are not thinking in that way," Bangladesh captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto said of the mismatch in experience between the sides. "There is an opportunity to beat them. It's not like we have never beaten any big team. Honestly, there are no big or small teams in T20s. The team doing well on the particular day wins and is the bigger team."

Bangladesh know they are in the hunt and their playground on Sunday will be a brand new venue in Gwalior that India know little about. Whether the visitors will be able to put it all together in front of 33,000 very loud people is a different question altogether.

Did you know?

- India have won 18 of the 19 T20Is in 2024 (including two Super over wins) and are currently on a seven-match winning streak

- Bangladesh have a 9-9 win-loss record this year. Seven of the wins have come against Zimbabwe, Netherlands, Nepal and USA

- Tanzid Hasan has three ducks in his last four T20I knocks