The Indian team will start their home season with a two-match Test series against Bangladesh, commencing on Thursday (September 19) in Chennai.
The Indian team will start their home season with a two-match Test series against Bangladesh, commencing on Thursday (September 19) in Chennai. It will begin the Test carnival for India, who are scheduled to play as many as ten red-ball games in the next two and a half months.
The team is going through a min-transition and would want their senior players to fine-tune their game. During the Test series against Bangladesh, India will track many things and want to tick a few boxes before heading on big assignments against New Zealand at home and Australia down under.
We look at three things to keep a tab on during the Bangladesh series.
The burning question; how will Virat Kohli fare vs spin in Tests? Virat Kohli’s numbers against Bangladesh have been top-notch. He has scored 437 runs at an average of 54.62, including two centuries, in nine innings against them.
But his game against spin hasn’t been as convincing; he has averaged a mere 34.05 vs slow bowlers since 2020. Bangladesh have quality spinners, including Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who have been in fine form lately. The tracks at the venues for the Bangladesh series offer enough assistance to slow bowlers, and Kohli’s technique will be tested again.
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One of the most exciting aspects of this Bangladesh series is the comeback of Rishabh Pant. While he had returned to other formats, it will be his first Test assignment since returning to competitive cricket. He prepared for this rubber by featuring in the first round of the Duleep Trophy 2024 and showed no signs of regression.
However, Test matches will present a different challenge to the southpaw, and the team hopes he can replicate the success of other formats in this series. He will be among the most important players in this Test match run, for he contributes with bat and keeps the wickets. Before that setback, Pant was among India’s biggest match-winners and would hope to contribute heavily again.
Kuldeep Yadav was absolutely brilliant during the England series earlier this year. He snared 19 wickets at an average of 20.16 and a strike rate of 36.05 in four innings, including a five-wicket haul. His average and strike rate were the second-best in the series, only after Jasprit Bumrah.
The Test team has several quality spin options, so Kuldeep has to sustain consistency. He is among the few wrist-spinners with real wicket-taking quality in red-ball cricket. Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja can outshine Kuldeep sometimes, but he must keep doing his part and build in this home season.
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