Cricket: Bangladesh Can No Longer Be Taken Lightly, Full Indian Squads Announced!

Bangladesh has ceased to be a minnow for most of the Test playing nations after their consistent display in the recently concluded World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand. Bangladesh almost reached the semi-finals of World Cup-2015 beating several teams including England in their march forward. Of course, Team India stopped them in the quarter finals, but not at all in an easy manner with the aftermath of the match really getting bitter.  Then in the recent tour of Bangladesh by Pakistan the hosts created history by winning the ODI Series roundly and convincingly. Therefore, requests from several key cricketers of Team India for a ‘much needed’ rest was not paid attention to by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and full-strength Team India squads were deemed fit.

Selection Committee of the BCCI today in Mumbai announced the Indian squads for the one-off Test and three one-day-internationals (ODI) for the upcoming India Tour of Bangladesh in June, 2015. Virat Kohli is there to captain the team for the solitary Test match and he has all his star cricketers. In addition, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has been recalled after two years in wilderness for the Test team maybe because of his impressive performance in the on-going IPL extravaganza. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is also retained after his famous 'escape to Test retirement' as the captain for the ODI team with pacer Dhawa lKulkarni replacing an injured Mohammed Shami and all his regular guys to play with. Dhawal’s selection could also be directly related to his performance in the IPL-8. Harbhajan  plays for Mumbai Indians who have reached the final of IPL-8 after a sequel of charged-up performances and Kulkarni for Rajasthan Royals that has finally crashed out in the Eliminator. The Selection Committee meeting was chaired by Sandeep Patil.

The sooner the ‘minnows’ tag gets out of circulation the better it would be for world cricket as all bilateral series and international tournaments will be more closely fought and fiercely competitive, and we may not have to contend with some predictable one-sided affairs. For now, Bangladesh is set for an inspired performance against India and they would definitely like to avenge their bitter exit from the World Cup-2015. All these factors are certain to make the cricket fans happier and a lot more excited.