India will play Bangladesh in the third game of the tri-series on Thursday. Both the sides had lost their first game in the tournament to Sri Lanka and another loss here will almost most certainly mean that the losing side will need to win both their remaining games in order to have some chance of qualifying for the final of the tournament.

India had a good enough game against Sri Lanka, but in the end, the dew coupled with Thissara Perrera put paid to their chances. That will continue to remain an issue even for this game, the dew. For the side that wins the toss, fielding will be the most natural option, as gripping the ball in the second half while bowling and fielding is a very difficult task.

Both the sides are full of spinners, and that will mean that the problem becomes doubly prominent.

For India, the batting did reasonably well, but they will need to have their batsmen convert their starts; a problem that they faced in the previous game. Yuvraj Singh 70 was their highest score with three other batsmen getting to 30s and then getting out. For some strange reason, the likes of Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan also batted in a manner which is totally unlike them - throwing their bats about without any plausible rhyme or reason.

The pace bowling did not fare too well for India either. Zaheer Khan was rather expensive and was easily taken away for runs, as was S. Sreesanth. Ashish Nehra bowled well through the entire course of the game, except the one last over that saw him being taken for aplenty by Perrera. In fact, despite the issues with the dew, the Indian spinners bowled better than the pace bowlers, and India could look at making a change or two in this department.

For Bangladesh, it is their over-reliance on the spin bowlers that will make winning the toss extremely crucial. Because if they end up fielding second, life could become very stiff for their bowlers and that could almost be the end of the match for them; especially given the batting line-up of their opposition.

From the batsmen's perspective, Mohammad Ashraful played a very matured innings and yet, he continues to remain a little up and down with his form. The issue with most Bangladeshi batsmen is their inability to convert good, flashy starts into something meaningful, and that is something that they will want so desperately.

An Indian win looks evidently on cards, and for the hosts to hold any chance, they will hope to win the toss first!

Tag :- Bangladesh   Harbhajan Singh   India   Mohammad Ashraful   Yuvraj Singh   Zaheer Khan