Bangladesh are no pushovers

Bangladesh’s Mehidy Hasan Miraz during a practice session ahead of the match against India in Pune on Tuesday. Pic/AFP

India hold an impressive 31-8 record in 40 One-Day Internationals against, but it was against the latter that they experienced their most painful World Cup outing.

One of the overwhelming favourites for the 2007 title in the Caribbean, Rahul Dravid's men were consigned to a five-wicket defeat by a young, inspired Bangladesh bunch led by the seasoned Habibul Bashar in their tournament opener.

World Cup 2007 disaster

At Port of Spain in Trinidad, India's famed batting line-up - Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Dravid himself, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni - was sent packing for 191 with Mashrafe Mortaza, Abdur Razzak and Mohammad Rafique sharing all ten wickets.

Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan, all struck half-centuries as Bangladesh cruised to a comfortable five-wicket victory. India's cup of woe was full to the brim when they also lost to Sri Lanka in their final match in the four-team Group B, thus crashing out at the first time of asking in their darkest World Cup hour since failing to win a single game in the 1979 edition in England.

India have won each of the next three World Cup clashes between the sides but the bitter aftertaste of the 2007 catastrophe lingers. That Mushfiqur and Shakib are still flying the Bangladesh flag can't make it any easier for Dravid, the current Indian head coach.

Having got off to a perfect start in this World Cup, India will be entitled to believe they will take another step towards purging that terrible memory when the teams lock horns on Thursday, at the World Cup debut of the MCA Stadium in Gahunje. Bangladesh have lost two of their three matches to date and are fretting over the quadricep injury picked up by Shakib in the defeat at the hands of New Zealand in their last game. As such, they might appear ripe for the picking, but India know better than to take their next opponents for granted.

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Bangladesh have won three of the last four ODIs between the teams, including the Asia Cup clash in Colombo last month. While that can't amount to much beyond feel-good, India are aware of how feisty Bangladesh can be, especially if their spinners get on a roll.

India more powerful

Man for man, India are the more powerful outfit with match-winners galore through their ranks, and are high on confidence after their seven-wicket rout of Pakistan in Ahmedabad on Saturday night.

That game marked Shubman Gill's maiden World Cup appearance and his first hit of the tournament after missing the first two matches due to dengue. Gill looked none the worse for the illness and played a few handsome strokes before falling for 16; he will look at Thursday as an opportunity to work his way back among the runs because for India to go deep in the tournament, they will need the classy opener to be firing on all cylinders.