One Day Cricket - New Rules

ICC has made some changes in rules when it comes to one day cricket in the recent ICC meeting at Barbados. It was being observed that the rules of cricket are too biased towards the batsmen and what people really want is a close contest between the bat and ball. 

Cricket has changed so much over the years. With bats improving these days even miss hits tend to clear boundaries. o ICC has announced that it will look into the size and make of the bats.

The earlier rules that allowed only 4 fielders outside the 30 yard circle made life difficult for the bowlers. Even good balls were going for boundaries, specially during the last 10 overs. So ICC has now taken a decision to allow 5 fielders  outside the 30 yard circle during the last 10 overs.

Again the batting powerplay that allowed only 3 fielders outside the 30 yard circle, this made life hell for the bowlers, even miss hits and edges went for boundaries. So batting powerplay has been scrapped . Now the batting side will only have the advantage of the mandatory powerplay. The mandatory powerplay happens when both the balls are new and provides lot of assistance to the bowlers. 

One more major decision that the ICC took was to have a free hit after every no-ball. Earlier only front foot no balls were awarded free hits, now all kinds of no balls that include full toss over waist height, back foot no ball or a bowler disturbing the bails on the non striking end at the time of bowling would be penalised with a free hit. Since the free hits came into existence the number of no-balls bowled by the bowlers have come down sharply. These days you hardly see any front foot no balls being bowled in T20s or one dayers. 

The major changes in rules for one day cricket are:

1. The requirement of posting two close in fielders within 15 yards of the batsmen during mandatory powerplay has been scrapped.
2. No batting powerplay from now on.
3. All noballs would result the next ball being awarded as a free hit to the batting side.
4. 5 fielders allowed outside the 30 yard circle from overs 41 to 50.

The change in rules will give more teeth to the bowlers and we will see more competitive cricket, although the number of runs that are being scored may come down. 

It would be interesting to see the fans feedback on the matches played under this rules.

Copa America quarterfinal - Argentina vs Colombia

Today I managed to catch up some Copa America quarterfinal action, the match between world cup finalists Argentina and Colombia. 

While Argentina are ranked as the third best side in the world. Colombia is next best ranked team at no 4 according to Fifa rankings. The match was heavily dominated by Argentina creating one after one scoring opportunities. 

However the man who stood between them was the Colombian goalkeeper Ospinia, who made a great double save in the first half and in the second half deflected a header that was going towards the goal to the goalpost. Had it not been for him Colombia would have lost the match in normal time and probably by a huge margin. 

In this tournament the semifinals and quarterfinals have no extra time so as soon as the match ended in a goal less draw in regulation time the extra time started.

With a goalkeeper like Ospinia,Colombia had a fair chance of winning the match. Had everyone,who took the shot on goal had done that properly, Colombia might well have upset Argentina.

However some of its players were unable to take the pressure of the situation and ended up kicking the ball away from the goalpost by quite a distance. Even the Argentine players on two occasions kicked the ball away from goalpost during penalty shootouts. The Argentine goalkeeper was able to save one of the penalties and Tavez hit the winning shot to send Argentina to the semi-finals.

Argentina dominated the entire match but it was Ospinia's brilliance that denied them a goal. This shows how relatively lesser rank team with an excellent goalkeeper can frustrate and even beat an opposition. Colombia did create a scoring opportunity in the 2nd half but the shot directly went into the goalkeeper's hand. 

Now that Argentina are in the semis , the other quarter final that would be played between Brazil and Paraguay tonight will determine their opponents in the semi-final match. Most people in the world would want Brazil to win , because it would be great to see a Brazil - Argentina semifinal. 

The Brazil vs Paraguay match promises to be an exciting match even though Neymar will not be playing because of suspension. The match is scheduled at 9:15 pm GMT. I am really looking forward to watching the match. 

Tied cricket matches and cricket match classics

Since the time Test cricket began to be played there has been only two tied cricket matches in the history of the game. There has been 2168 Test Matches played till today, so less than 0.1% of the Test matches has ended in a tie. But whenever there is a tied test match the match has been wonderfully exciting.Interestingly both the tied Test Matches involved Australia as one of the teams. 

There are quite a few one day internationals that have ended in a tie. There are 29 one day internationals that have ended up in a tie. A tied match is always exciting and an apt result. In this matches both teams play equally well, but as we know in cricket losing by 1 run is as worse as losing by 100, so when there is a tie proper justice is done to the performance of both the teams in that match. 

The most exciting feature about a tied match is the the last over of the match often it would be a time when the batting team has certain amount of runs to get or the bowling team has to pick a certain number of wickets normally it is one or two. It is a time of the match where either of the two teams can end up winning the match. It a nerve wracking moment for the palyers coaches and fans. 

If a video presentation is made featuring the last overs of all tied matches , I am sure cricket lovers across the world would love to watch it. Unfortunately from the video both the tied test matches will be absent because none of them were video recorded. 

There are cricket lovers in India, and, I am sure in other countries of South Asia, who would love to watch the videos of some of the greatest cricketers in action. Who would not love to see the bowling of Marshal , Garner , Michael Holding, Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillie and who would not want to see the batting of Viv Richards,Clive Lloyd , Kapil Dev, Gundappa Viswanath , Sunil Gavaskar etc. 

There are Indians who never seem to get tired of cricket. It is no doubt a great game. It is a game that requires one to be mentally strong and keep thinking all the times. Thinking circketers seem to become better and better.

India vs Bangladesh - 3rd one day

The series between India and Bangladesh was already decided in the last match when Bangladesh won two matches back to back. The real hero of Bangladesh's success has been the 19 year old Mustafizur Rehman. This medium fast bowler from Mirpur with his unique blend of cutters and seamers was unplayable in the first two matches in which he picked up 5 wickets and 6 wickets respectively. 

However in this match the Indians were playing Mustafizur much better. They playing Rehman of the backfoot letting the bowl come to them, today Mustafizur was able to claim just two wickets when Rohit tried to cut a ball that was wide of him but ended up giving an edge to the wicket-keeper and the other wicket he took was of Raina when he was looking to accelerate the scoring in the slog overs. He did bowl well but at the end did go for some runs, ended up giving 57 runs of his 10 overs.

Indians batted well kept wickets in hand and in the last 10 overs scored 90 runs that gave India and excellent total of 318 runs. The pitch was helping the spinners and medium pacers when they bowled cutters it was gripping the wicket and there was some deviation as well. 

Indian bowlers started well and got the wicket of Tamim Iqbal very early, Bangladesh batsmen went after the bowling of Stuart Binny and Umesh Yadav specially Soumya Sarkar, however Dhawal Kulkarni got his wicket in the 10th over. Bangladesh was scoring runs at a brisk rate but kept losing wickets and that was the difference between the two teams. Not a single Bangladeshi batsman was able to score a 50.

Ashwin once again bowled beautifully on this wicket where he picked up 2 wickets by giving just 35 runs in 10 overs. Even Raina the part time off-spinner had an excellent outing both with the bat and ball with the bat he scored a brisk 38 of a mere 21 balls and took 3 wickets for 45 runs, he was the highest wicket taker in the Bangladesh innings. Raina was rightfully given the man of the match.

Dhawal Kulkarni bowled well and picked up two wickets in mandatory power-play. He thus was responsible for giving a good start to Indian bowling. Yadav was expensive in spite of his pace, his pace actually made it easy for the batsman to score on this particular pitch. Yadav gave 33 runs in 4overs.

Binny did get the wicket of Shabbir Rehman and interestingly it was of a slower off-cutter that gripped the pitch and turned, the kind of bowling that is done by Mustafizur Rehman. It would be interesting to see how much success Mustafizur Rehman gets in other pitches and in overseas conditions. Not everywhere he will get such helpful conditions and he is not very express. 

The Bangladesh team was all out for 240 in the 47th over , marking a convincing consolation win for India. Thank God India didn't have to face a Banglawash like Pakistan. 

The difference between the two teams was surely Mustafizur Rehman , he did exactly what Ajantha Mendis did when he first began to play. Indians had no clue of what Ajantha was bowling and they just kept falling to him. Exactly same happened in case of Rehman, in the first two matches Indians had no clue how to play Mustafizur and the fell on the mat. Had Mustafizur not made his debut in this particular series the result may have been different it might have been India 3 Bangladesh 0 .

However as it turned out Bangladesh got its maiden one day series victory over India. A great moment for the 170 million strong cricket crazy nation. 

India vs Bangladesh - 2nd One Day

Well the Indian team was shocked by Bangladesh yesterday as it won the second consecutive match on the trot and thereby winning the series. The batting went down to the bowling of Mustafizur Rehman who picked up 5 wickets in the first match. In this match he picked up 6 wickets. The Indian batsmen seem to have no reply to his cutters. However watching the close in replays on TV , it appears that when he bowls his cutters his arm straightens by more than stipulated 15 degrees.

Just like in the Indian Premier League , Kolkata Knight Riders got Sunil Narine, Bangladesh seem to have got a bowler who is lethal on the Mirpur wicket. All Indian bowlers except Ashwin hardly made any impact on the Bangladeshi batsmen as they scored the required runs within 38 overs.

India lost the wicket of Rohit early because of an excellent catch. However it appeared that the Indian batsmen hardly made any effort to take the attack to the Bangladesh bowlers , they hardly came down the wicket to the medium pace of Mortaza or Rehman. The replacements Raydu and Patel did not score a single run. Both of them fell to the medium pace cutters of Mustafizur. 

Only Dhawan, Dhoni and Raina were able score runs however Dhoni and Raina were not their natural flamboynt self , they struggled to score runs but somehow managed to score 47 and 33 runs respectively. Both of them fell to Mustafizur while Dhawan fell to the offspin of Nasser Hossain. 

Bangladesh did not have any problems at all in dealing with the Indian bowlers. The only bowler who was able to make any impact was Ashwin. One difference between the two teams was the Bangladesh batsmen attacked Indian bowlers and did not allow them settle. 

After this series, it is now clear that Bangladesh are a new force in Asian cricket when it comes to one day cricket. Which is good for the game , Bangladesh has been given test status for almost 17 yrs,  it is only now they are delivering the goods.

With Bangladesh the world cricket now gets another 170 millions die hard cricket fans. The success of Bangladesh will inspire other Asian countries like Nepal and Afghanistan to become like them someday. The future of cricket certainly lies in South Asia.

The cricket fans of South Asia are more passionate about the game than fans anywhere else in the world. Its very difficult to say why cricket is so popular here but anyway it is the No.1 sport among all SAARC nations. 

India vs Bangladesh - 1st One day International match

The first one day match between India and Bangladesh at Mirpur has thrown out a surprising result. Batting first Bangladesh amassed 307runs while Indians fell 80 runs short of Bangladesh's total. This is Bangladesh's 5 win against much higher ranked Indians.

The main culprit for this result was the pitch. Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat first. When the first Innings started the quick bowlers of India hardly got any help from the pitch. In fact even a swing bowler like Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was not able to swing the ball at all. The result - India which was playing with 3 quick bowlers, all of them got thrashed by the Bangladeshi Batsmen.

The pitch helped the spinners, however India has just one front-line off spinner Ashwin. Considering the fact that Bangladesh has so many left handed batsmen, it would have been better if India had selected two off spinners for the Bangladesh tour.

By the 15th over Bangladesh had already scored 119. It was the off-spin of Ashwin that got India its second,third and fourth wickets. Before that Soumya Sarkar was run out and that was India's first breakthrough. Part time off-spinner Raina did a splendid job he bowled 10 overs for just 40 runs. The fact that Bangladesh has so many left handed batsmen made it somewhat easy to play the the left arm spin of Jadeja who bowled 8 overs giving 48 runs and picking up a wicket.

In the slog overs even Kohli bowled his right arm leg-cutters for 2 overs conceding only 12 runs. So the Indian spinners bowled 30 overs conceding only 151 runs. While the fast bowlers conceded 156 runs in 20 overs. This turned out to be deciding factor of the match.

When Bangladesh had come to bowl the conditions had changed . Earlier in the day there was more than 40 minutes play delay due to rain. So the Indian innings started much later in the evening, in Bangladesh the evenings are much more humid and there is more moisture in the atmosphere and pitch. This factor helped the Bangladeshi fast bowlers.

However after initially starting a little tentatively, Rohit Sharma who is wonderful batting form went after the Bangladeshi bowling and scored fast runs. He scored at almost a run a ball while in the other end Shikhar Dhawan was struggling a bit. The fast bowlers did create chances but the Bangladeshi wicket-keeper failed to hang on to those regulation catches.

The Indian fortunes changed after Shikhar Dhawan's wicket fell. The new batsmen were unable to cope with the bowling that was aided by the conditions and the pitch. Taskin Ahmed got the wickets of Kohli immediately after getting Dhawan. Had Kohli left the ball alone it would have most probably been given a wide.

But the hero of the show turned out to be Mustafizur Rehman. His leg-cutters deviated by a huge amount. Rehman got the wicket of well set Rohit followed by the wickets of Rahane , Raina, Jadeja and Ashwin.

The condition for batting in the evening was not great as on many occasions the ball was not coming on to the bat well. Rahane totally mistimed his shot in which he got out. On the earlier delivery he had just hit a boundary.

Dhoni fell after just scoring 5 to the left arm spin of Shakib Al Hasan. Jadeja and Raina did build a good partnership of 60 runs but after that Raina and Ashwin fell to the left arm leg-cutters of medium pacer Mustafizur Rehman who was the man of the match for bagging 5 wickets.

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar did provide some late innings resistance scoring 25 not out of 21 balls however the entire Indian team was out for 227 runs.

Had the conditions of the pitch not changed during the second innings the result would have been different . It also makes sense for a team like Bangladesh to have pitches which behave differently under lights. So that on occasions when Bangladesh wins the toss it can chose to bat when the conditions are the best pile up lot of runs and let the other team bat when pitch is helping the bowlers. This way it can on certain occasions beat the best teams that are ranked way above it.

A fair assessment of a team's ability can only be done when it gets to play in uniform conditions for the entire match. Today Bangladesh were very lucky as the conditions were on their side. Had India won the toss and batted first. Bangladesh would have lost the match. In that case Mustafizur Rehman's leg-cutters won't have worked at all. The deviation won't have been there and the pace would have been easy picking for Indian batsmen.

There are still two one day matches left in the series and Indians will come back hard. That's for sure.  

Cricket - Popularity in India and South Asia

Talking about sports in India the most popular sport is cricket, other sports don't even come anywhere near cricket when it comes to popularity. The reason for such popularity is hard to determine. Since cricket is not a cheap game every cricket gear is expensive whether it be the bat, the ball, the pads, thigh pads, abdomen guard, elbow guard, gloves, helmet or chest guard.

The game is so popular that one can easily find kids and youngsters playing cricket in the streets of India. However most of them are never going to play cricket with exact cricket gears. Most of them would be playing cricket with a rubber or a tennis ball and a wooden bat. The ball that is actually used for cricket matches is very hard and normal bat that people use can't be used to play with that, since the bat would crack or break into two pieces. 

The popularity of cricket increased after the 1983 cricket world cup when India beat West Indies in the finals to win the world cup but even before that the game was popular. The Eden Gardens in Kolkata and Brabourne and Wankhede stadiums were always packed when India was playing. Before television the public would be glued to the radio sets to hear live running commentary of the cricket matches that featured India. 

It must also be noted that the BCCI has done wonderfully well in marketing the game to the Indian public as compared to other sports bodies in the country. BCCI is one of the richest sports bodies in the world. The Reliance Cricket World Cup of 1987, 1996 Wills World Cup and 2011 Cricket World Cup which were co-hosted in India were very successful. Specially the last two the were financially successful as well while 1987 World Cup was just about able to make some profits. As compared to soccer world cup the cricket world cups did not involve a single penny from the governments of the host country. 

If you look in TV the crowd profile of Indian public is different from the audience profile overseas. The spectators in India are far more passionate, far more enthusiastic as compared to spectators in Australia, South Africa and England. They make far more noise than overseas spectators.

The popularity of cricket has come down in West Indies, England and Australia, whereas the popularity of cricket is constantly increasing in India, Pakistan, Bangaldesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan so cricket's future lies in South Asia and perhaps certain countries of Africa. 

India has played a big role in preserving and evolving this game without India cricket won't have been the same probably it would have almost gone out of existence. 

Cricket's birth might have happened in England but its now essentially a game dominated by India and South Asia. 

India vs Bangladesh Test Day 5

The final day of the test match between India and Bangladesh saw the first session washed off because of rains and wet outfield. However today for the first time the sun did come out and and it became possible to have some cricket after 12:15 IST. 

Bangladesh were playing at 111/3, on the final day after the rain delay only 67 overs, 52 overs plus 15 mandatory overs were supposed to be bowled. The best chance India had of producing a result was to end Bangladesh's first innings below the score of 262, so that they can enforce follow on. Bangladesh did keep losing wickets while there was some good batting as well.

The last Bangladesh wicket went for 256, so Bangladesh fell 7 runs short of avoiding follow on. India did enforce follow on but in the second innings Bangladesh batsmen were watchful and defensive in the first 15 overs only 23 runs were scored however they did not lose any wickets. There was a difficult chance to get batsman Tamim Iqbal's wicket but Virat Kohli was unable to grasp it. 

Captain Kohli judged that there was no chance of a result so the final two overs were given to Murli Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan respectively. When the mandatory overs started the two captains agreed and simply called off the match.

Thus because of the rain the match turned out to be a drab tame draw. Had India got 90 overs more the result would have been totally different. It was a match that was completely dominated by the Indians both with the bat and then with the ball. 

When you play Bangladesh there is very little to gain and a lot to lose after this draw India moves to No 4 in ICC rankings from No. 3. The reason for this draw is the rain and the rain has made India lose a spot in the ICC rankings it should be noted that had India by any chance lost the match India's ranking would have crashed down to No. 7. 

This was tailor made pitch for spin bowlers and Indian spinners did get their dividends Ashwin got a 5 wicket haul, his first 5 wicket haul overseas. However it should be noted that the conditions and pitch in Bangladesh is exactly similar to that in India. Harbhajan Singh who is playing his first Test after two years also got two wickets and bowled reasonably well. 

Its doubtful if Bhajji will get any more opportunities to play Test Cricket considering Ashwin's form. 

This one off test match will be followed by three one dayers all of them will be day and night encounters. The one day series is likely to be relatively more competitive than the Test Match. India will be the firm favourites to win the one day series and its very likely that India will make a clean sweep of the one day series. 

There is lot of enthusiasm in Bangladesh regarding this series. The enthusiasm for the game among Bangladesh public has given the circket world a new cricket powerhouse of the future. The future of the game lies in South Asia, in the future India , Pakistan , Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan will be test playing nations that would dominate the world of cricket. 

Bangladesh vs India -4th day

As expected event he fourth day of the Bangladesh vs Indian test match was badly affected by rain only 30 overs and one ball was possible in which Bangladesh scored 111 runs for 3 wickets. The pitch did help the Indian bowlers the Bangladesh batsmen were really lucky that they did not lose more wickets than they actually did. 

The match is expected to be a train draw tomorrow even if all 98 overs are bowled tomorrow since it would be very difficult for India to get 17 wickets in this time. The test match should have been placed some other time ideally in Indian winter, Indian team could have simply dropped in for a 5 day match. Really the time selection for the test match was stupid everyone knows that monsoon normally comes in Bengal on June 10 every year.

Solution Needed in Cricket

Rain plays a major spoilsport in the game of cricket. Rain affects cricket more than any other game. As compared to soccer where you can see players playing the game even when it is raining pretty briskly, in cricket even a small drizzle stops the game and the a portion of the ground that comprises of the pitch and bowlers run ups has to be covered. This eats up lot of time in the game. This problem has persisted some countries have come out with solutions that has given partial solution of this problem  like super soaker.

The super soaker absorbs the water that's on the covers and in the outfield pretty fast thereby it is able to get the ground ready for play fast. However there is no technology solution there till that that can give a complete solution of this problem.

We need some technology that would keep the rain off the ground when a match is scheduled. Cricket grounds are huge so it is not possible to have roof overhead, putting such a roof would make it necessary to have pillars on the field itself which is not possible since they may obstruct the game. 

We need something that when we want would actually someway somehow obstruct the rain and disperse it to areas outside the ground. If such a technology is made it will be of great use in cricket as no one wants a rain marred cricket match. 


Technology has solved a lot of complex problems that man used to face earlier, hopefully this problem of rain marred cricket matches is solved soon. There have been too many cases where in a competitive tournament a team has been thrown out just because of a rain delay. Take the infamous 1992 Cricket World Cup semi-final match between Pakistan and South Africa. The rain delay resulted in revised target of getting 11 runs of 1 ball which is impossible to score. South Africa lost that match and Pakistan went on the become champions.

There are so many occasions when teams are actually denied a test victory because of rain immediately what comes to my mind is a 1997 test match in South Africa between India and South Africa in which the last day saw lots of rains and India was unable to get the last two wickets. Again in that wonderful series against Australia in Australia the last test match could have been won by India had the rain gods not intervened. 

No spectator who has gone to the ground for watching a cricket match wants a match that is washed out by rain. A spectator not only loses the money he spent to buy the ticket but also there is a deep disappointment after spending hours in rain in hope of getting to see some cricket. Lets hope that in the near future there would be some technology solution to this rained off cricket matches and people get to see more results.

India vs Bangladesh Day 3

As expected the rain has played spoilsport in the Test Match between Bangladesh and India. Out of the scheduled 270 overs , only 103 overs and 3 balls have been bowled. Indians did bat briskly to score 462 runs which is very fast by test match standards.

Today's Team India's focus was on scoring fast runs so batsmen took chances and in that process did end up giving their wickets. The Bangladesh bowling was also better than the first day and the pitch was also offering a bit of assistance.

Now two more days remain in this test match if the rain gods are kind enough we can have another 180 overs or 196 over at the most of cricket possible. Now if India declare tomorrow morning and if the Indian bowlers are penetrative enough to get Bangladesh out twice and the first time they have got to get them out below 262 so that they are in a position to enforce follow on, then we can expect a result in this test match.

At the moment it looks like only two results are possible if the weather holds and Indians bowl well we may have an Indian victory or we may have some rains and there is very little chance of getting a result.

Lets hope that Bhajji uses this opportunity well to make his way back into the team. It is observed that spinners improve with time. All of us would love to see Bhajji bowl well and play for India for a few more years.

West Indies Cricket

West Indies is not a nation, it is a cricket team that comprises of independent nations like Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Jamaica etc. It has been playing Test Cricket since 1928. The West Indies cricket team was once a force to reckon with particularly in the 70s and in the early  80s, the team was simply invincible. 

West Indies produced some of the greatest fast bowlers ever like Andy Roberts, Malcom Marshall, Joel Garner, Micheal Holding(probably the fastest bowler ever) all of them were very fast disciplined and accurate and all of them were feared by batsmen around the world. So great was this bowling side that a world class fast bowler like Silvester Clarke rarely got a chance to play. 

Just like in their bowling the West Indies team back then had some of the best batsmen ever. The opening batsmen were the great Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Hayes another great, at number 3 came one of the greatest batsmen ever Vivian Richards followed by the captain and another great batsman and fielder Clive Lloyd. They had an excellent wicketkeeper in Jeff Dujon who could also bat and Larry Gomes was a decent allrounder. 

Michael Holding

Andy Roberts 

Malcom Marshall

Joel Garner

Sir Vivian Richards

Gordon Grenidge

Clive Lloyd

This was the team of the 70s and 80s when West Indies won the 1975 World Cup and 1979 World Cup respectively and were the finalists in the 1983 world cup. After Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards became the captain of the West Indian team and had a very successful captaincy career. West Indies cricket during its heydays were one of the best sports team of the world. Unbelievably talented and disciplined. They played entertaining and delightful cricket that cricket lovers across the world enjoyed. 

Even before this era there were lots of greats that West Indies had produced. Sir Garfield Sobers was the greatest allrounder ever in the history of the game. Even when West Indies cricket was in decline it did have great batsman like Brain Lara and Carl Hooper and great bowlers like Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.

In time the Caribbean countries being so near to the United States started to get influenced by Basketball, American Football and Soccer. Being good in this games enabled them to get a scholarship in the US. Being good in Soccer enabled them to get a contract in EPL or Spanish League. So in time the popularity of cricket did come down in the Caribbean islands. 

However even today West Indies teams does have players of excellent quality like Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Lendel Simmons , Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard, a world class allrounder like Andre Russel , a mystry bowler like Sunil Narine( hopefully his action is fine), Jerome Taylor, Tino Best and others.  
  

India vs Bangladesh Test - Day 1

The first day of the test match between Bangladesh and Indian in Fateullah was badly marred by rain. Only 56 overs of bowling was possible due to rain. But Indian batsmen made most of the conditions. The pitch was good for batting and the Bangladesh bowling hardly troubled India.

Shikhar Dhawan played briskly scoring at more than a run a ball to reach his third century. He is currently batting on 150 runs of 158 balls and tomorrow should try to convert it into a double or ideally triple century. His partner Murali Vijay played relatively slowly and is currently batting on 89 of 178 balls.

Not a single Bangladesh bowler was able to trouble the openers as India ended the first day at 239/0. The weather prediction for this match is not great tomorrow the chances of rain are even higher. So whatever opportunity to play the batters get they must make the most of it and score as many runs as possible.

My prediction for this test match is most probably its going to be a draw because of the weather. But its a great opportunity for Indian batsmen to accumulate lots of runs against the weak Bangladesh bowling.