“Most well-rounded team Bangladesh has produced in my time”: Hathurusinghe expects stiffer competition against India

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], September 17 (ANI): Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe believes the present team is the most “well-rounded” of the combinations he has seen in his two stints with the side.

Bangladesh have displayed rich form before the Test series against India. On Thursday, they will step into the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, after scripting a historic series win against Pakistan.

Bangladesh swept the Test series with a 2-0 win and overwhelmed Pakistan on their turf. Bangladesh will hope for a similar result after suffering defeats in the past three Tests against India.

Hathurusinghe is expecting stiffer competition from his team as they look to keep their winning streak intact.

“I think this is probably the most well-rounded team that Bangladesh has produced in my previous time and this time. We’re covering a lot of bases, we’ve got good fast bowlers, we’ve got a really experienced spin attack, and then the batting, we actually have good depth because of two reasons,” Hathurusinghe said, according to ESPNcricinfo.

“One is that two of our spinners [Shakib and Mehidy] are genuine batters who got Test hundreds, and then two of our wicketkeepers [Litton Das and Mushfiqur] are our main batters. So our balance of the team in this series is really, really good, and that gives us actually a lot more confidence that we can be competitive in this series,” he added.

Hathurusinghe feels more than the outcome, the way the team played during the Pakistan series will be the factor behind their confidence.

“[The win in Pakistan] certainly gives us a lot of confidence coming into this series. Not because of the outcome of the series, the way we played that series, the way we handled certain situations, we were behind the game in both Test matches, and then how we came back and then the people who contributed at different times gave us a lot of belief for this series,” Hathurusinghe noted.

India’s squad for the 1st Test against Bangladesh: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Yash Dayal.

Bangladesh: Najmul Hossain Shanto (C), Shakib Al Hasan, Nahid Rana, Mominul Haque, Litton Kumer Das, Syed Khaled Ahmed, Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Nayeem Hasan, Zakir Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Jaker Ali Anik, Taijul Islam, Shadman Islam.