There are fears of a wash out or two during India tour of Bangladesh beginning in June 2015 © AFP
India will tour Bangladesh to play one Test and three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) next month. But in that part of the world, June is the peak monsoon season. Sandipan Banerjee wonders how this series will take place next month, when about 300 MM of rainfall is expected in Bangladesh.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is in its final leg. The final is scheduled to be played on May 24 and with it there will be an official end of Indian domestic season of 2014-2015. In most parts of India cricket is not a feasible option in June, July and August due to the rainy season. As per the regular monsoon roster, the Indian team will travel to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to continue their cricketing assignments and keep generating revenue for The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Bangladesh: Joy of watching the Bangla Tigers succeed
To schedule a tour of Bangladesh in mid-June is the most surprising and annoying. They made the same tour last June. Just after IPL, a second string Indian team led by Suresh Raina had crossed the border and went to Dhaka to play three ODIs. But as expected, all three games were affected by rain and the last match was washed out. Thanks to Stuart Binny’s epic 6 for 4 in the second ODI, India somehow managed to win the series 2-0.
It seems Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and BCCI have not learnt any lesson from that experience and are again going ahead with a series during the peak monsoon season of Bangladesh. This time India will play a Test as well. So it will be a very good opportunity for Bangladesh to draw their first ever Test “series” against India. Bangladesh’s streak and most consecutive wins across formats at home
The Test will be played in Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium at Fatullah, where the last Test had been played way back in 2006 when Bangladesh had faced the Australians at their pomp. The drainage system of this venue is not the greatest and from few previous instances in past, it can be predicted that a heavy shower (which is very common over there) can easily call off the day’s play. It is expected that the players will spend most of their time on this tour, either in dressing room or in hotel. Indian players are advised to pack enough books, DVDs and Playstations for spending the spare time.
Just after the one-off Test the teams will lock horns in a three-ODI series. All their games will be played in the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, 10 km outside the Dhaka city. Mirpur is currently the “Home of Bangladesh cricket”. The ground has very good drainage facilities. But despite f that, keeping the rain threat in mind, all three matches have been allotted reserve days. This time BCB is desperate to produce results from the ODIs. Mushfiqur Rahim regrets Bangladesh’s poor performance against Pakistan
Instances of allotting reserve days for all matches in a bilateral series are very rare in modern day cricket. But then, if illogical series are planned, such occurrences will keep occurring.
(Sandipan Banerjee is a reporter at CricketCountry. Cricket has been the biggest passion for him since his childhood. So, when it came to choosing his career, he chose to turn his passion into his profession. Apart from cricket he likes mountain trekking, river rafting, and photography. His twitter handle is @im_sandipan)