India launches campaign on Saturday

PORT OF SPAIN: Having got enough time to acclimatise to Carribean conditions, India will launch their cricket World Cup campaign against minnows Bangladesh here on Saturday faced with the dilemma of whether to field an out of form Virender Sehwag.

Sehwag has been woefully short of runs in recent times but the indications are that the Delhi opener along with Irfan Pathan would be picked in the playing eleven for the match against the sub-continent rivals, who are known to spring a surprise now and then.

The Indians are in a confident frame of mind having won both their warm-up matches but it remains to be seen whether they can carry the momentum into the mega event where they are regarded as one of the front runners by a few former cricketers.

India can pack enough punches even though Sehwag and Pathan are looking to prove themselves all over again. While the two look to be certainties in the starting line-up, it is unlikely that both the spinners, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, would feature in the opening game.

The match could be a pointer to the tactics India would employ in their games. Their approach in the power-play overs, the thrust they are able to impart in the middle over and powerful finishes would all be up for screening.

As for bowling, India has not been entirely convincing with the firepower they have in the middle overs and their accuracy in the final overs also needs a recheck.

If the Group B opening game between Sri Lanka and Bermuda on Thursday was anything to go by, the relaid pitch at the Queen's Park Oval should aid the batsmen.

But then anything is possible against Bermuda and the jury should still be out on the strip.

Bangladesh justifiably feel spurned by their big neighbours, who have as many as seven cricketers with more matches to their credit than the 149 played by the minnows in their entire one-day cricket history.

Off spinner Harbhajan Singh, with 147 ODIs to his name, just about misses being the eighth Indian to do so.

Besides, there has not been a single contest between the two teams in the last 27 months during which India played 65 one-day internationals while Bangladesh featured in 48 of their own.

Bangladesh fear being sucked in the aura of Indian superstars. They have exhorted their men to stay close when faced with the Indian onslaught with all eleven individuals pulling in their weight.

Captain Habibul Bashar is viewing their win over New Zealand in the warm-up game as a pointer for Saturday's game.

His bowlers were more than brilliant against the Kiwis and all the batsmen had pitched in at the right time.

In Shahriar Nafees and Mashrafee Murtaza, Bangladesh has two stand-out performers. Nafees scored over 1,000 runs from one-day internationals last year while Murtaza bagged the most wickets with 49 scalps.

It's another matter though that only seven of Bangladesh's 28 matches last year were played against regular Test sides.

The rest were against minnows, so to speak.

Bangladesh is essentially a young side but Bashar and Mohammad Rafique are vastly experienced with the latter preparing to turn out in his third World Cup.

The batting is useful without being spectacular though opener Tamim Iqbal and Mohammad Ashraful are young guns who have no respect for reputations.

Teams (probable eleven):

Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar (capt), Shahriar Nafees (vice-captain), Tamim Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Shakib-al-Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Rafique, Abdur Razzaq, Mashrafee bin Murtaza, Tapash Baisya and Syed Russel.

India: Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid (capt), Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan
Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar and Munaf Patel.

Hours of play (IST): 7 to 10.30 pm; 11.10 pm till close of play.

Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pak) and Steve Davis (Australia)

Third umpire: Ian Howell (South Africa).