The Asia Cup is one of the lesser fancied tournaments in terms of public imagination. Amongst the many multilateral series being played in international cricket, this is one tournament that has struggled to find its own niche. Tournaments like the World Cup, World T20 and the ICC Champions Trophy all hold its own place in the public memory mainly because of the relevance of the prefix of ICC before it. The Asia Cup however struggles to capture that fascination mainly because of the anonymity of the Asian Cricket Council. However, the tournament is now going to act as a percussor for the World T20 and will be played in the same format unlike previous editions.
Given that it features the top nations from the sub-continent, it cannot but act as a perfect build-up to the premier event that begins barely a day after the final of this tournament. That adds an extra edge to the significance of the 2016 edition in Bangladesh.
Much of the questions to the captains in the pre-match press conference surrounded Mustafizur Rehman and his exploits against the Indians last year in the ODI series. That series win catapulted Bangladesh's growing prominence in the fifty-over format. The off-field drama surrounding the then ICC chairman and president (N Srinivasan and Mustafa Kamal) during the ICC World Cup 2015 also fuelled a rivalry that is in its infancy.
India and Bangladesh cannot be placed on level terms based on cricketing skills alone but the frenzied nature of the T20 format quells a lot of the imbalance. Bangladesh's rise in the fifty-over format cannot be directly correlated to an increase in stature in T20Is. They drew a series against Zimbabwe at home recently and will need to raise their game in T20s just as they have done in the other limited overs format.
The Asia Cup thus presents them with a perfect opportunity to kick-start proceedings. Playing on home turf comes with its own advantages. The vociferous crowd support is a given and the know-how of conditions is a crucial factor as well. They are no longer considered 'minnows' in the international arena and India will still remember being stung in ODIs by the same opposition. For the hosts, this acts as a perfect setting to gather some momentum going into the World T20. The same holds good for other teams as well but for Bangladesh, the significance of a victory against India in the opener, in front of their home crowd, might be a bigger shot in the arm.
For India, having arrived upon a settled T20 squad is a boon but they will be focussing on sustaining the momentum gained by winning back-to-back T20I series wins. They will be focussing on striking a balance between winning games and providing opportunities for all their members of the T20 squad.
They might already be forced to make one injury enforced change if MS Dhoni doesn't pass fit on the day of the game. The skipper has been suffering from back spasms and Parthiv Patel might end up donning the gloves without yet attending a practice session in Dhaka. If it comes down to that then India will also be forced to tinker their batting order as Patel is a batsman who finds the top-order more suited to his style. The rest of the batting order picks itself but one concern for India might be the lack of batting game-time for Yuvraj Singh. A promotion in the batting order might be on the cards at some point during the tournament if Singh does not get enough chances naturally.
The bowling unit is a far more settled one with Jasprit Bumrah's performances filling in for a gaping void while Ashish Nehra, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja know their specific roles in the format.
The hosts on the other hand will try experimenting a little more before they arrive upon their final eleven ahead of the World T20. The absence of Tamim Iqbal does leave a hole at the top of the order, but Imrul Kayes is expected to make up for it with his experience. They could also plump for a rookie in Mohammad Mithun to take up the top-order slot while the slot for a third pacer might be a shoot-out between Al-Amin Hossain and Taskin Ahmed. There will be a lot of focus on how Mustafizur performs in his second season after catching many a big name by surprise when he first came on.
India were found out recently on a pacy pitch at Pune and if Mirpur offers something similar to the one offered to the India U19 team in the World Cup final recently, then it could offer them more than a slight challenge. But as the qualifier games showed, this pitch may not have as much life on it.
Squads:
Bangladesh: Mashrafe Mortaza, Abu Hider, Arafat Sunny, Mohammad Mithun, Nurul Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Taskin Ahmed, Tamim Iqbal, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan, Al-Amin Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman
India: Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Pawan Negi, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Parthiv Patel
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