With almost all the focus on T20 Cricket and despite all the jam-packed schedule, team India is set to play only its sixth Test match come Wednesday this year, and their first since taking on England in the one-off Test in July.
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India will face Bangladesh in a two-match series, with both of them being must-win games in order to stand a chance to enter the World Test Championship 2021-23 final next year.
After the Asia Cup debacle, T20 World Cup semi-final exit, and most recently the ODI series loss against Bangladesh, the one note of positivity that the team will begin the imminent Test series with, is the fact that they are yet to lose a match in the format against the hosts.
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With Rohit Sharma ruled out of the first Test due to injury, KL Rahul will lead the side with some other key players also missing from the squad courtesy of a seemingly never-ending spate of injuries within the selected contingent of-late.
Along with Rohit, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammed Shami are also unavailable for selection. However, there’s always a silver lining as well, in the form of a return back of the left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat in the squad after as many as 12 years.
Chittagong Stadium pitch report 1st Test
The Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium pitch at Chattogram has traditionally been spin-friendly, and is expected to play the same during the first Test match commencing December 14.
The surface will only continue to become better for the spinners as the match progresses, with more purchase likely to be expected for them from ‘Day 3’ onwards, when the pitch will begin to hold up a tad more.
However, the same will not prevent the batters from enjoying their time in the middle throughout the match duration, with the fresh pitch likely to promise truckload of runs across the four possible innings.
While the new ball bowlers will ask questions from the batters, the spinners might well decide the outcome of the match.
