India vs Bangladesh Live Score, T20 World Cup 2024: Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma Open, India 29/0 (3)

Virat Kohli looks in the mood today. Another boundary in the third over, this time off a trademark Kohli wrist flick against the in-form Tanzim Hasan Sakib.

India: 29/0 after 3 overs.

Baffling call from Bangladesh, are they opted to have spin from both ends. Shakib Al Hasan bowls the second over and gets taken to the cleaners, with Sharma hitting a four and Kohli hitting a sublime six.

India: 23/0 after 2 overs.

Interesting choice from Najmul Hossain Shanto. Bangladesh started the innings with off-spinner Mahedi Hasan, who has bowled a decent first over, conceding 8 runs. Rohit Sharma struck a boundary, but that was off the edge.

India: 8/0 after 1 over.

The national anthems of both nations – written by the same person, that is, Rabindranath Tagore – has been played out in Antigua. Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma are out at the crease. Time for live action now.

Along expected lines, India have decided to make no changes to their team. That means Sanju Samson is still sitting out.

Bangladesh, quite interestingly, have opted for an additional batter today, fielding Jaker Ali in Taskin Ahmed’s place.

India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah.

Bangladesh Playing XI: Tanzid Hasan, Litton Das (wk), Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Towhid Hridoy, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah, Jaker Ali, Rishad Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Mustafizur Rahman.

The toss has happened, and the news from the centre is – Bangladesh have won the toss and decided to bowl first.

Bangladeshi captain Najmul Hossain Hossain stated “We would like to restrict them to a small total. That is our plan. We know the conditions here and also about the wind factor.”

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, however, was not at all disappointed after losing the toss, for he wanted to bat first anyway. “We wanted to bat and that is what we got,” said Sharma.

Will India opt to fix what’s not broken? Or, is something broken, but the wins have concealed it?

Should they decide to make a change, Sanju Samson could be considered to strengthen the middle-order, considering Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are likely to continue opening the innings.

We will know in 8 minutes.

In a word – runs.

The Indian batters heaved a sigh of relief when they moved base from New York to Barbados, and the smiles could be broader today, for in the last match, we saw Australia scoring 100 runs off 11.2 overs against Bangladesh on this ground.

Earlier, we have seen South Africa scoring 194, while the USA putting up 176 in response. England scored 122 runs in just 10 overs against Namibia.

The bottomline being – there are big runs to be scored, should the batting be up to the mark.

India vs Bangladesh Live Score, T20 World Cup 2024: 6 matches, 5 victories, 1 no result owing to rain – should India’s dominance at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 be translated into numbers, we can use these figures. Not that Rohit Sharma’s men have never found in precarious positions – for majority of the match against Pakistan, they were not in the driving seat. Then, against the USA, they had a few anxious moments when both Virat Kohli and the captain was dismissed early.

But whenever India have been dealt with a punch, not only have they got back on their feet and regained composure, but launched a counter-punch with twice the venom.

Now, standing on their way to what would be a sixth victory in this competition, are Bangladesh. Like the yin and yang, they are at times brilliant, yet often dismal. Can they halt India’s juggernaut, or will the steamroller prove to be unstoppable yet again?