India will face Bangladesh in a two-match Test series at home next month. The series opener is scheduled to take place at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai from September 19 onwards, and Green Park Stadium in Kanpur will host the second Test from September 27. India last faced Bangladesh in a red-ball series in December 2022, when KL Rahul was leading the side in the absence of injured Rohit Sharma.
In that assignment, Bangladesh had troubled India, and according to former Indian batter Suresh Raina, the Najmul Hossain Shanto-led side, which secured a historic win over Pakistan last week, can cause problems for Team India again, and therefore the hosts can’t afford to take them lightly.
According to him, the two-match series at home will also be a good preparation for India for the five-match Test series against Australia, which starts on November 22 in Perth.
“You cannot take Bangladesh lightly as they have a fine spin bowling attack and some good players who have done well for a long time. This series will be a fine match practice for the tour to Australia,” Raina was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Before facing Bangladesh, the majority of the Indian players will take part in the Duleep Trophy 2024, which is set to start on September 5 across two venues.
Raina feels it’s a great initiative by the BCCI to get top players for domestic tournaments.
“Now, a team for Tests will be formed. Top players playing Duleep Trophy is a nice initiative by the BCCI. You get to know a lot of things when you play red-ball cricket.”
Shubman Gill, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Shreyas Iyer will lead India A, B, C, and D teams respectively in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and the likes of KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, Sarfaraz Khan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Kuldeep Yadav, among others, will be in action.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma has been rested for the Duleep Trophy matches, which will be played in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, and M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, along with Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Ravichandran Ashwin. Ravindra Jadeja was included in the India B squad but was released by the BCCI a couple of days ago.
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