File photo of Indian cricket team.© AFP
Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team on Thursday resumes its campaign in the World Test Championship 2023-25. India will be playing a two-match Test series against Bangladesh before taking on New Zealand in a three-game series and then travelling to Australia for a five-match series. The Indian cricket team is coming after a break of over one month and it will be eager to get over the 0-2 ODI series defeat against Sri Lanka in early August.
India are strong favourites to enter the WTC final and they will aim to live up to the expectations with a dominating performance against Bangladesh. However, Najmul Hossain Shanto-led Bangladesh are no pushovers. They face India in the two-match Test series after whitewashing Pakistan 2-0 in their previous series in the format that too on the latter's homesoil.
Former India opener Wasim Jaffer has warned Rohit and co. ahead of the Test series that kicks off on September 19. He said that Bangladesh have chanced their mindset now and that is why they are playing better cricket even on opponents' homesoil.
"They have become better with experience. They were known to play well in Bangladesh, but lately they have also toured well. They have beaten New Zealand in New Zealand (2002 at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganu), beaten Pakistan in Pakistan. In limited overs cricket, they have done well in patches away from home. They have quite a few seniors to guide them. Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim have been there for so long," Jaffer told Hindustan Times.
"I think they must have gained from Donald's work (he had joined in March, 2022 and was there till the 2023 ODI World Cup). Before that Courtney Walsh was also there. During that period Ebadot Hossain emerged, the likes of Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman got better and now Nahid Rana has come up. With Shoriful Islam and Hasan Mahmud, they have four- five quality fast bowlers, who bowl 140-plus, that is what you need," Jaffer added.