Indians look to assert supremacy

Having just swatted aside South Africa in a brutal exhibition of their all-round skills on home turf, India will look to extend their dominance in the long format when they take on a beleaguered Bangladesh in the opening match of the two-Test series here on Thursday.Bangladesh have emerged as India’s closest rivals in limited-overs cricket from Asia in recent times, over-taking Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the pecking order. They beat India in a bilateral ODI series (2-1) for the first time in 2015 and since then have pushed the Men In Blue quite hard. Even in T20Is, they have made the Indians sweat, losing some close and engaging encounters only owing to their inexperience of playing highly competitive games.Bangladesh even came close to registering their first T20I series win over India a few days ago before, typically, bungling it up on the home stretch. Such has been their growth in white-ball cricket, no more ‘just Bangladesh’ talk exists in the Indian camp, the players very aware how dangerous the Tigers can be on the field. There’s simply no room for complacency any more.The gulf in class in Test cricket though is still as wide as it was when the two nations locked horns for the first time exactly 19 years ago at the Bangabandhu Stadium. India are perched on top of the world in ICC Test rankings and the newly-formed World Test Championship while Bangladesh are way below at ninth in rankings and are playing their first match of WTC. India just posted a world-record 11th successive Test series triumph on home soil while Bangladesh lost to newbies Afghanistan in their own backyard this September, a defeat which was criticised heavily in the media and by former players.The Bangladeshis also arrived in India following a bitter fight with their Board over wages where many players went on strike which was called off just days before this tour. Adding insult to injury is the suspension of Test captain and star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan — the player who led the revolt against the BCB — for failing to report approaches to fix matches.Given this backdrop and how lucky the Holkar Stadium has been for India — the hosts have not lost a single game here (1 Test, 5 ODIs and 1 T20I) — Kohli’s men start overwhelming favourites in the opener. The only worry is complacency but Kohli stressed his side is guarded against it.“We'll have to play well to get a result, like we have in the past,” said Kohli. “We'll not take anyone lightly from Bangladesh. When they play well they can be a very skillful team and they have the ability to play some really good cricket. We'll have respect for them but more than that we'll have belief in our own team.”Kohli also indicated that he’ll play three seamers given the slight green nature of the surface and the balmy pre-winter weather. So it remains to be seen what combination he comes up with on Thursday. Will he stick to 6-5 combo, pinning more faith on spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja who are no muck with the bat. Or will he drop one of them and summon Hanuma Vihari and use him as the second spinner. Considering the Bangladesh bowling attack isn’t too strong, Kohli will most likely field a balanced 6-5 combo.Bangladesh, yet to beat India in Tests and having lost seven out of nine games, have a Herculean challenge ahead of them. Even accomplished countries have struggled to go toe-to-toe with India at home for five days and although the conditions for them isn’t alien, the quality and experience of the opposition is at a completely different level.India, overall, appear very strong for Bangladesh but the Tigers won’t give up without a fight.The teams (from): INDIA: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill.BANGLADESH: Mominul Haque (capt), Shadman Islam, Saif Hassan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Mohammad Mithun, Liton Das, Mehidy Hasan, Taijul Islam, Abu Jayed, Mustafizur Rahman, Imrul Kayes, Ebadat Hossain, Al-Amin Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Nayeem Hasan.