Apparently India's biggest star Virat Kohli had asked to be rested for the tour to Bangladesh, and a few others might be raising their voices in a couple of days, formally. At the current scenario, Bangladesh might be facing a 'second-string' India in June at home.
It is not for the first time that India had not sent its full-strength side to Bangladesh for a tour. Just about a year ago, the likes of Kohli, Dhoni, Ashwin, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan were rested for a 3-match ODI series against the Tigers, which India won by a 2-0 margin. One side of the stone brings historic references which logically enhances the willingness for India to do the same this time round as well.
A retrospection on last year's context from Bangladesh's point of view portrays a story like this:
Bangladesh had lost to Sri Lanka early in 2014, starting from Tests, to ODIs to T20s. Amid a few injury concerns, disciplinary issues, transition in terms of change in coaching staff, suffering unexpected loses to Hong Kong in the T20 World Cup at home and Afghanistan in the Asia Cup, Bangladesh could not have been at a worse situation in terms of form and positive mental faculties. There were rumors of unhealthy internal clashes between players, most of it a direct reflection of the string of defeats and mostly the manner of them. Day in and day out, Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim had the same words for the media,"We could not perform to our potential, hopeful about the next match", and that elusive next match never came.
India won the first ODI of the 2014 series in a closely-fought battle, and won the second by defending 105 runs, helped by a freak-show from Stuart Binny who ended up with figures of 6 wickets for 4 runs. The third ODI was washed out. While India gave debuts to a couple of players on the tour, Bangladesh had two debutantes as well: Mohammad Mithun and Taskin Ahmed.
After reaching new lows in terms of the losing streak, the Tigers finally got back to winning ways after drubbing Zimbabwe 3-0 in the Test Series at home, and 5-0 in the ODI series. A few new faces had made their presence felt in the squad by then, and a wind of change took place with the new coaching-staff in charge. The World Cup campaign gave new life to team senior Mahmudullah, who ended up being the 7th highest run-scorer in the competition. It gave pacer Rubel Hossain a sniff at finally bringing out his fearsome side and display his skills to the World. With Masrafe's return as ODI and T20 skipper, Bangladesh unfolded new highs with newbies Soumya, Sabbir and Taskin contributing to a quarter final berth the World Cup campaign.
Pakistan came weeks after the World Cup, and Bangladesh played arguably the best bilateral series in their cricketing history after whitewashing the visitors 3-0 in the ODIs, 1-0 in T20s and even managing a draw in the eventually lost Test series from dire circumstances. Mushfiqur had already established himself as Bangladesh's run-machine, Tamim Iqbal seemed to have left his days of depression far behind, and many hungry Tigers like Liton Kumar, Rony Talukdar and Mustafizur Rahman waited their time in the bench. Bangladesh, in current context could be a threat to any top-ranked side, especially at home. And much of it had again to do with the run of wins the Tigers managed that paved a route of confidence and aggression never seen before, at least collectively. The skills of the players had finally began to translate into results, much more evident in the shorter formats of the game. Bangladesh have already moved up to number 8 in the ODI rankings, and are in serious contention for the Champion's Trophy spot for the first time ever.
In order to maintain the spot though, the Tigers need to keep winning against a few more top-ranked sides, and matches against India could be the first stepping stone. 'Nothing is fair in love and war', and in a battle of survival, there can be no compromise. Bangladesh would love to host a 'second-string' India at home: because what the Tigers want is victory, and maybe in the process scare away the thoughts from the minds of the 'big-guns' of not sending a full-strength side to the Tigers den.
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