BD-India 1st ODI at Mirpur Thursday

Bangladesh and India play the first of their 3-match one-day international (ODI) series at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium at Mirpur in the city on Thursday. The match is slated for a 3:00pm start. Bangladesh captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza urged fans to be sporting during the ODI series. Mashrafe, keen to keep Bangladesh’s ODI rivalry with India on the field, urged fans to turn down the heat on the home series. Tensions ran high after controversies escalated following their World Cup quarter-final clash in March. But the excitement has died down as time passed by. Mashrafe has asked everyone to refrain from re-fuelling the controversies during a pre-match press conference on Wednesday. “In a sense it is a battle, we definitely fight on the field. But it is not a real battle; it is only on the field. Something may go wrong on a cricket field. Thinking too much about it is needless. Actually, cricketers don’t remember these things and rightly so. A new series is about to start, we are looking forward to it.” But Mashrafe knows it is futile to attempt to control the emotions of the supporters. “People’s emotions cannot be controlled. Yet I ask them to view the game in a sporting spirit.” The series is doubly important for the hosts with Champions Trophy qualification on the line. They need to win at least one of the three games to remain in the top eight in the ODI rankings.
SQUADS
Bangladesh (probable): Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mominul Haque/Litton Das/Rony Talukdar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza, Arafat Sunny, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed
India (probable): Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (C&WK), Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma, according to a news agency.