5 min readDec 13, 2022 07:06 AM IST
First published on: Dec 12, 2022 at 08:37 PM IST
Let us forget the white ball for the time being. With a 50-over World Cup looming in a year’s time, undoubtedly all the focus is on the make-up of the ODI side. But before that there is another big tournament to look ahead to, one that almost slipped out of everyone’s memory. The World Test Championship (WTC) final qualification is heating up with every passing match. From Adelaide to Multan a lot has been happening. Now only four teams are in with a realistic chance to make the final of the WTC, which will be held at the Oval in the first week of June.
Before we get down to India’s two-match Test series against Bangladesh that begins at Chittagong on Wednesday, here is where India stand.
The series defeat in South Africa and losing the fifth Test in England (carried over from 2021) mean, India in a precarious position, fourth in the WTC points table. For Rohit Sharma & Co. to make the second successive WTC final, they need to win at least five of their remaining six Tests, including four against Australia at home in February-March.
Just ahead of India are Sri Lanka, who have two Tests lined up in New Zealand – a team hard to beat at home. So even as India take on Bangladesh, they will be keeping a close watch on what happens Down Under where the top teams in the table – Australia and South Africa face-off in three-match series. With Australia having 75.00 percentage points even winning three of their remaining four will ensure their place in the final. For the Proteas, if they avoid defeat and win three of their five matches, they will seal their spot.
So from India’s perspective, the task ahead of them is simple. They need to win five of the six Tests – a defeat could all but push them to the exit – and there in lies their biggest challenge. India have won only one Test out of the four they have played this year and the two coming up against Bangladesh isn’t going to be easy either, especially in the absence of Rohit, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja. All four played an integral role in India making it to the WTC final in 2021, and for India to stay in contention, they have their task cut out against Bangladesh.
“We have to try and go back to basics,” stand-in captain KL Rahul said on Monday. “We are team that is used to playing lot of Test matches, so it is about reminding ourselves and each other and remembering what we did well as a team and what worked and try and repeat that. Each time we play a different format, it is a challenge and the mind space that each player will be in is quite different. As a leader it is just important to back your players and let them make their own decisions. And it is also important that we also enjoy our cricket and not really think ‘we haven’t played too much of Test cricket’. We don’t think like that as players or as a team. It is about ‘we are playing this format and what is required as a team and as an individual for the team and the country and do our best,” Rahul said.
To make things more challenging for them, they will be facing the hosts on type of pitches – slow turners – that usually tends to test their batting line-up as much as seam and swinging conditions in New Zealand and South Africa. Although they may not be as formidable in Tests as much as they in ODIs on home soil, the spin attack including captain Shakib Al Hasan, off-spinner Mehidy Hasan, left-arm spinner Taijul Islam will test the India’s batting line-up who are not as good as the previous generation, when it comes to playing the spinners. And in the current side only Virat Kohli, Rohit (unavailable for first Test), R Ashwin and Umesh Yadav have previous experience of playing in Bangladesh.
India used the A series against Bangladesh A to give an opportunity to the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, KS Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Saurabh Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini. With a day to go for the Test, India do have certain selection calls to make, especially with regards to who opens with Rahul. While Gill is the first-choice, Easwaran has made a strong case for himself by scoring two centuries in the two unofficial Tests against Bangladesh A.
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan left and Indian captain K.L. Rahul right pose with the test trophy ahead of their first test cricket match in Chattogram, Bangladesh, Monday, Dec. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Surjeet Yadav) 
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