Emboldened by the home condition and partisancrowd, Bangladesh hope to clinch yet another ODI series against India as thetwo side lock horn for a three-match series for the first time since 2015.
The first ODI is on Sunday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.The match starts at 12PM and will be aired live on T-sports and GaziTelevision. Bangladesh won their only ODI series against the mighty neighbour in 2015 bysecuring the three-match series 2-1 at home.
Liton Das, who was appointed as captain in absence of injured Tamim Iqbal,feels that there is no reason that they couldn't replicate the performance of2015, especially when they are playing at home.
"The home condition is a big advantage for us. When we play at home, our goalis always to win the series, so there is no exception in this series also,"Liton said on Saturday during the pre-match conference.
"Obviously India are a better side and bolstered with so many world classplayers. But, if we can come up with our best cricket, anything can happen. Ithink we also have got a settled batting unit, good bowling and fieldingside. So, there is no reason that we can't beat them. But we must play ourbest cricket."
After securing the last bilateral series between the two sides in 2015,Bangladesh lost five straight ODI matches to India with the last coming in2019 Cricket World Cup. But in all of those five matches, they created achance to beat India. While sometimes luck was not with them, sometimes theymade blunder in fielding or batting to dig their own graveyards.
Even in the last T20 match between the two sides in the last month in T20World Cup, Bangladesh came close to beat India, thanks to a blistering knockof Liton Das but they simply couldn't seal it.
Considering those tight games, Indian captain Rohit Sharma believed a toughtime is awaiting for in the upcoming series.
"We have to play good cricket to win against them. And every time we played,it has been very close game. Even in the T20 World Cup, it was a close game.I think in 2015, we lost series here. We know they are a very improved teamin the last few years. So, we've to play our best cricket to win this. It isnot going to be easy for us," Rohit said.
The two teams played 36 matches, so far, between them India winning 30 andBangladesh won just five matches while one match fetched no result.
