Hyderabad - Arab Today
India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat in the one-off test against Bangladesh at Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday.
Middle order batsman Ajinkya Rahane returned for the hosts, ranked number one in the world in the format, at the expense of Karun Nair who could not hold onto his place despite his triple century in India's last test against England.
"Hyderabad has always been a very good batting wicket," Kohli said after the toss, refusing to be complacent against a team eight rungs lower in the test rankings. "For us the opposition is not something we focus on, we focus on our skills and focus on executing our plans and be persistent with our skills."
Bangladesh face a formidable job playing their maiden test in India, currently in the middle of a brilliant home run.
"Test Cricket is all about keeping the momentum for five days, you can't really play three days of good Cricket and give it up," said Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim. "Hopefully the boys are fired up. All the guys are keen to show some skill."
Teams:
India: Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha (wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma
Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (captain-wicketkeeper), Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Kamrul Islam Rabbi
Source :Times Of Oman