Cricket

Title aspirants India will have revenge on their minds when they launch their 2011 Cricket World Cup campaign against co-hosts Bangladesh in the tournament-opener here on Saturday, fully aware that any slip-up could prove costly.

Minnows Bangladesh had ensured India’s early exit in the first round of the 2007 edition at the Caribbeans and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men will be eagar to settle the score and kick start their campaign on a positive note at the Sher-e-Bangla National stadium.

Tipped as one of the favourites, the current world number two side, boasts off an exceptionally balanced team, but such a pool of talented players will also pose a few selection questions for skipper Dhoni.

Dhoni though seems to have sorted out his problem of plenty in the batting department when he tipped Virat Kohli ahead of Suresh Raina after their second warm up match against New Zealand.

“The number four slot is very important for us. Right now it is a slot war. It is the number four slot where Kohli needs to bat with Gautam Gambhir at number three,” Dhoni said.

“Kohli is sort of a player who likes to spend little bit of time early and then go after the bowlers. Still, there is a bit of chance where Virat may get an edge over (Suresh) Raina seeing the current form he is in,” he added.

Dhoni also hinted that he would stand by Yuvraj Singh as his ability to spin the ball away makes him an asset to the team even though currently he is a bit short of runs.

“We are playing with four bowlers. A part-time spinner is really important especially if it is a left-arm away going spinner. That’s the one big advantage he (Yuvraj) has got over others,” Dhoni said.

The explosive batting line-up will be marshalled by Sachin Tendulkar, who would be participating in his sixth World Cup this time around and the senior batsmen will look to give India a flying start with Virender Sehwag.

Gautam Gambhir will be next, while the middle-order also looks rock solid with Kohli, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan – all capable of playing big-shots and also rotating the strike.

In their second and last warm up game, India scored a mammoth 360 against New Zealand and it will give a lot of confidence to the batsmen, especially skipper Dhoni and Gambhir, who hit an unbeaten 108 and 89 respectively.

Kohli and Raina also cracked half-centuries against New Zealand and Dhoni would be hoping his boys continue the good work.

In the bowling department, Dhoni will have to pick his options carefully since India is going with a four-pronged attack.

Indian spinners Harbhajan Singh and surprise inclusion Piyush Chawla have taken five and six wickets in the last two warm up games. Even R Ashwin and part-time spinner Yuvraj scalped two and three wickets respectively.

In contrast, the pacers have struggled with Ashish Nehra claiming two and Praveen Kumar’s replacement S Sreesanth taking one wicket, while Munaf Patel remaining wicketless in the warm up matches.

But with pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who didn’t feature in the two warm up ties because of a minor niggle, returning to action on Saturday, a much better performance can be expected from the seamers.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, have so far been content with an odd upset and have been generally looked upon as underachievers but the tigers would look to shrug off that tag when they lock horns with India at home.

Though they have just five victories from 20 World Cup matches to show, Bangladesh has the distinction of beating Pakistan on debut during the 1999 edition and ousting India and defeating South Africa four years ago.

Skippered by Shakib-Al-Hasan, Bangladesh have a few good batsmen in talented Mohammad Ashraful, the pint-sized dynamic opener Tamim Iqbal and wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim. Besides, captain Shakib-Al-Hasan, himself, ranks number one in the ICC’s all-rounders list and knows how to wield the willow.

Bangladesh won their first warm up match against Canada but lost to Pakistan in the second tie. However, their openers Tamim and Imrul Kayes have got runs under their belt in the two matches.

Though their pace attack will lack the fire-power of speedster Mashrafe Mortaza, 21-year-old pacer Rubel Hossain had claimed five wickets in the warm up matches.

Besides, Bangladesh also have some good tweakers in left-arm slow bowlers Shakib and Abdur Razzaq, who can get handy support from many other part-timers.

Bangladesh can also take heart from the fact that they came into the tournament after having made a clean sweep against New Zealand, a full-fledged test playing country and defeating Zimbabwe 3-1 at home, where they will play all their six league games.

TEAMS

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain/wicketkeeper), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, S Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Ashish Nehra.

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (Captain), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Shahriar Nafees, Raqibul Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Naeem Islam, Mahmudullah, Abdur Razzak, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Nazmul Hossain, Suhrawadi Shuvo.

Match starts at 1430 hrs (IST).

Pakistan’s intent to seek legal recourse on hosting rights issues may have cast a shadow on the 2011 World Cup but the ICC, on Monday, made it clear that there was no risk of the event being shifted out of the Indian sub-continent.

Pakistan’s share of 14 matches has been allotted to other three co-hosts and the strife-torn country has threatened to take legal action against the move.

As the ICC gears up for the tussle, the governing body’s President David Morgan said that it would not impact the hosting of the event in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Asked specifically whether the seemingly prolonged dispute could result in the World Cup being shifted out of South Asia, Morgan said, “No, I don’t believe that the 2011 ICC World Cup will be shifted away from the Indian sub-continent.”

Morgan insisted that Pakistan continues to have the hosting rights of the matches and would be entitled to the fees.

“I think it’s important to emphasise that Pakistan has lost none of its hosting rights. All the hosting rights they had, they remain entitled to them. However it has been decided that none of the matches would be staged in Pakistan,” he said.

Matches were taken away from Pakistan after a series of terror attacks in the country, including the one on the Sri Lankan cricket team, which left six of the visiting players injured.

Morgan also ruled out organising Pakistan’s share of matches at a neutral venue, an idea floated by the Pakistan Cricket Board, making it clear that the games would be shared by the remaining three co-hosts.

“The ICC Commercial Board has decided that all the matches scheduled originally in Pakistan would be hosted by other co-hosts, that is Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India,” he said.

Asked what the ICC would do in case of prolonged legal battle with the PCB, Morgan said, “Well, I can’t discuss that at this stage.”

Pakistan is also not too happy with the draft Future Tours Programme (FTP) and has accused India and Australia of sidelining it by not scheduling any bilateral series.

But Morgan said there was no such intent on BCCI’s part and the Indian Board was tied down by certain restrictions.

“BCCI clearly has some restrictions on it in playing bilateral tours in Pakistan. What I’m concerned about is that a cricketing nation, as powerful as Pakistan, should not be isolated”, he said.

“I firmly believe the ICC should do everything possible that FTP puts Pakistan in its rightful place as a powerful and influential cricketing nations,” Morgan assured.

Morgan said international cricket is incomplete without Pakistan.

“We cannot ignore the fact that Pakistan has produced some of the most talented and attractive players over the last 20 years and it’s inconceivable that international cricket could prosper without Pakistan playing its full part,” he said.

Asked when he expected teams to agree to tour Pakistan, where security has been a perennial concern, the 71-year-old administrator said, “Not in the foreseeable future.”

“There has to be a significant change in Pakistan for the ICC and the visiting cricketing nations to be convinced that Pakistan is the place to play cricket”, he added.