With WTC final spot in sight, Team India will look to prevail over Bangladesh in Tests

Chattogram [Banglades], December 13 (ANI): After losing the ODI series against Bangladesh, Team India will be looking to seal the two-match Test series against the hosts as they have an ICC World Test Championship spot in the sight.
Men in Blue and Bangladesh will start their Test series on Wednesday with a match in Chattogram. The two-match Test series is the first between India and Bangladesh since November 2019.
India have a 9-0 advantage over Bangladesh in head-to-head Test matches. The 11 Test matches between the two countries have resulted in two draws. In Bangladesh, two of the last five games between India and Bangladesh have resulted in a draw. The other three matches were won by India.
Virat Kohli decimated the Bangladeshi bowling attack in a pink-ball match at Eden Gardens before the last Test match between India and Bangladesh. However, Kohli hasn’t recorded a century in a Test match since that time. It will be interesting to watch if he can finally score a century in a Test match in Bangladesh.
Only one of India’s four tests this year had resulted in a victory, and the two remaining matches against Bangladesh won’t be easy either.
India will be without a host of regulars when they take on Bangladesh in a two-Test series that begins on Wednesday, with Rahul filling in as skipper for the injured Rohit Sharma (finger) and fellow veterans Jasprit Bumrah (back), Mohammad Shami (shoulder) and Ravindra Jadeja (knee) also on the sidelines.
Positive results in Bangladesh are crucial for India’s chances of reaching June’s World Test Championship final at The Oval, with the Asian side currently in fourth place on the standings with just six Tests remaining this period.
Just what the India XI looks like for that first Test against Bangladesh remains unclear, with uncapped batter Abhimanyu Easwaran and bowling trio Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar and Jaydev Unadkat all receiving a call-up to a 17-player squad earlier this week.
Easwaran earns a chance in India’s squad on the back of consecutive centuries for India A, but the 27-year-old could miss out on a debut should selectors decide to pair Shubman Gill with Rahul at the top of the order.
Following India’s two Tests in Bangladesh, their remaining World Test Championship fixtures for this period come against Australia at home in February and March, where the two rivals will battle it out for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
For Bangladesh, the return of wicketkeeper-batter Mushfiqur Rahim, Yasir Ali, and bowler Taskin Ahmed would help Bangladesh. Yasir and Taskin were unable to play because of injuries, and Mushfiqur skipped Bangladesh’s Test series against the West Indies to complete Hajj.
The trio will be back to strengthen Bangladesh’s batting order and pace unit. However, the hosts will still be without the services of opener Tamim Iqbal, who was unable to play in the ODI series against India and is still questionable for the second Test.
With the final game scheduled to be played in Chattogram, Bangladesh is feeling good after gaining an unbeatable 2-1 series win over the visitors in the one-day internationals. They will want to repeat similar performances during the Test series because Bangladesh has failed to defeat India in a Test match 11 times.
Bangladesh squad: Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mominul Haque, Yasir Ali, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan (c), Litton Das, Nurul Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Shoriful Islam, Zakir Hasan, Rejaur Rahman Raja, Anamul Haque.
India Squad: Shubman Gill, KL Rahul(c), Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Srikar Bharat, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Saurabh Kumar. (ANI)