Smarting India look to tame Bangladesh

Selection issues for Rohit's team ahead of their second match

The day before India's first match of the Nidahas Trophy, the team spent more than four hours at the ground in an intense practice session. This was understandable, given that it was the first hit together for the group before the tournament. Equally sensible was the decision to stay put in their hotel ahead of the second match, against Bangladesh, given that they had played a tight game only the night before.

Players will always tell you that one practice session does not make or break a player, and in that light, the decision to rest rather than train is not one that can be seen as taking Bangladesh lightly. Having lost their first match, India will not be complacent come Thursday.

What Rohit Sharma and Ravi Shastri have to think about, though, is an aspect that comes well before practice or net sessions: team selection. While the call to leave Ajinkya Rahane out of the team for the first two Tests against South Africa can certainly be deemed to have backfired - and many warned against such adventurism at the time, so this is not a case of hindsight being perfect - this tournament throws up a different kind of selection challenge.

With some of the top guns missing, and the opposition teams also not being at full strength, this was always going to be an opportunity to tinker with the line-up and try a few things. That said, it is difficult to see why KL Rahul was left out for the first game, while both Rishab Pant and Dinesh Karthik played. And, having picked the senior wicketkeeper, it made little sense that he bat behind Pant. It's true that Pant is a swashbuckling hitter, and that he has virtually every shot in the book, but in time the young man will come to understand that it is wise not to attempt to play all of these shots in every innings.

While giving opportunities for fringe players to showcase their ability, the balance of a team cannot be weakened to the extent that you neither know what your best batting order is or who to turn to when the going gets rough. Shikhar Dhawan played the best T20I innings of his career, and yet India did not make enough, against Sri Lanka, and that tells you just how much the other batsmen struggled.

If there was one straightforward positive, it was the manner in which Washington Sundar, only 18 years old, handled himself. Bowling with accuracy and situational awareness even when batsmen were going after him, the young off-spinner went for only 28 from four overs, this despite being taken for two sixes in the PowerPlay.

On a pitch that Shikhar described as being "not a normal  paata (flat batting track) but a slow  paata", Bangladesh could be handful with the spinners getting through their overs quickly and their fast bowlers having the ability to take the pace off the ball. The advantage that India have over their opponents is first-hand knowledge of the pitch and conditions. They have to make this count in order to ensure that the tournament does not become a damp squib for a team expected to outshine their opposition.