India out to return to winning ways

Dhaka: Team India will hope to redeem their World Cup humiliation against Bangladesh in the first One-Dayer at Mirpur on Thursday.

India play Bangladesh on Thursday and the signs of the World Cup trauma still remain. But suddenly India versus Bangladesh seems like an equal contest.

However, the Indian cricket team are all set to begin a new journey. A mix of experienced heads and young shoulders share one mission - to get back to winning ways.

The scars of the World Cup defeat are still visible and some old perceptions have been thrown out of the window.

"I don't think anyone considers them now as minnows or an easy oppositions anymore. Everyone knows that if you want to beat Bangladesh and specially at home, in these conditions then you will really have to play well and we are aware of that," said Indian skipper Rahul Dravid on the eve of the first One-Dayer.

A tried and tested combination of six batsmen, one wicketkeeper and four bowlers will be used in first match at Mirpur.

Piyush Chawla, RP Singh and the injured Manoj Tiwary have been kept out of the final 12. Dinesh Karthik and Dinesh Mongia will fight for the last spot and in all probability Mongia will get the nod as the fifth bowling option. In these conditions, this looks to be the best combination.

"Now we have not played cricket for a while after the World Cup which has been a disappointment so like anything, once you have had a disappointment you want to go out, in fact, you can't wait to get out there are try and correct that and try and play some good cricket. And the boys have been really waiting for it. So the boys are looking forward to it," said Dravid.

Bangladesh, now enter the series with self belief and a home support that suddenly believes in their team. Victories over the likes of India and South Africa in the World Cup has given them just the lift they needed. Now they need to follow it up consistently.

"More than anything else we want the players to enjoy themselves. But winning on home soil will be great and we are focussed on that." said Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar.

Indian team's jinx with injury in recent weeks continues in Dhaka as well as Manoj Tiwary is also out of One-day series because of shoulder injury.

However, the visitors are more concerned about a fine show in the first match of the One-Day series, even as Bangladesh looks all charged up to show that their World Cup victory wasn't a fluke.

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