Tigers aim clean sweep of India

Bangladesh national cricket team will aim for a 3-0 clean sweep of India as the sides lock horns in the third and final One-Day International of the series in Chattogram today.

The Tigers beat India in back-to-back thrillers in Dhaka as they won the first match by a solitary wicket before a five-run win on Wednesday to seal their second ODI series win over their neighbours.

While Bangladesh have won an ODI series against India before, they have never done the full sweep, which means this is a brilliant opportunity to do so.

In both matches, Mehidy Hasan Miraz appeared as Bangladesh’s hero as the player went home with the player of the match award from both matches. While his inclusion is a doubt due to the knee injury he sustained in the second ODI, the Tigers will hope he comes around before the clash.

Bangladesh’s concern ahead of the third match will be their recent record of losing the final match after winning the series in the first two. They did the same against Afghanistan earlier this year, and also against Sri Lanka last year.

Bangladesh fielding coach Shane McDermott was hopeful that they will be able to keep the intensity and seal the win to make it 3-0.

“The job is never done. We don’t take international matches lightly. This team has never beaten India 3-0, that’s a massive goal for us. When we don’t win, we really pride ourselves on being hard to beat. We came close against Pakistan in New Zealand. We came close to potentially making it to the T20 World Cup semi-finals. We have been competitive and we are in pressure moments more often than not. I know that after the series win, the boys have one eye on one more win in this ODI series,” he said on Friday ahead of the third match.

A concern for Bangladesh will be their fielding as they dropped two catches of Rohit Sharma in the second match, which could have led to the Indian skipper taking the match out of Bangladesh’s hands.

But McDermott believes every dropped opportunity is a chance to learn.

“We all drop catches. Talking about the fear factor, we think about potentially what are the repercussions of dropping a catch when the ball is in the air. We see a lot of high balls dropped under lights because fielders have time to think. Trying to train what we think when the ball is in the air, is a very hard task. But it can be learned. When we drop catches under lights in critical moments, we create one of the greatest learning experiences. Obviously, we want to drop as few catches as possible,” the Bangladesh fielding coach said.

Bangladesh have the opportunity to test out players as Yasir Ali Chowdhury and Shoriful Islam are on the bench, but McDermott said otherwise.

“You have to ask the selector. When you are playing against India representing your country, unless there’s a workload management issue, I don’t think Bangladesh are in a position to rest players for the sake of resting players. We are not in the habit of winning consistently enough at the moment to have the luxury to leave good players out. We will be looking to pick our best team as often as possible, to win as many games as we can,” he said.

Bangladesh’s top-order has failed throughout the series, and the Bangladesh fielding coach asked for change ahead of the third ODI.

“It has been a common concern for us (top-order failure). It will be a better wicket here, with more value for shots. It would have a bit more consistent bounce. Our target from a batting point of view is to have one of our top five batters around till the 40th over, to take the game as deep as we can. Guys are getting through that tough patch of the first 20 balls, the hardest time to bat. It is the next step now to take those 20 balls to 50-100 balls and that match-winning innings. Someone from the top five doing it,” he said.

For India, the aim will be to find at least a win in the series. They will be without regular skipper Rohit Sharma, along with Deepak Chahar and Kuldeep Sen, meaning KL Rahul will lead the side in the final ODI.

They have added Kuldeep Yadav to the squad and he might be making an appearance instead of Shardul Thakur.

The match will begin at 12 PM at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, where Bangladesh have won 15 out of their 23 matches.