Does India need the completely pointless tour to Bangladesh?

While no Indian fan needs an excuse to watch the Men in Blue take the field, the upcoming tour of Bangladesh seems to be an exercise in futility as far as can be seen. The series was announced rather late, and with the important tour of England coming up, many wondered if this was the right time for yet another tournament, especially after the hectic IPL season.

Then the squad announcement was yet another eye opener. The selectors decided to rest most of the first team regulars before the English tour, which is a good decision on the surface, but Bangladesh are no longer the minnows of World cricket that they once were. They have developed into a strong cricketing nation in their own right and underestimating them may prove costly.

Some may argue that this tournament was more to give the younger players a chance to shine on the global stage, and to allow them to compete for a place in the national team. While it is true that most of the players selected were strong performers of the IPL that does not mean that they will be able to step up without trouble to the international scene. The team does have some experience in Raina, Uthappa and Rahane, but that is about it.

This also becomes a problem since Bangladesh has fielded a full strength team. Their 15 man squad features only 2 uncapped players and the rest are experienced campaigners, especially against India. This gulf in experience could well prove to be a decisive factor in the tournament.

Another problem in the logic of the organizers is that they chose Bangladesh as the opposition. The conditions in that country is very similar to those found in India, and pitches throughout the subcontinent are generally similar. If they really wanted to test the youngsters, they should have sent them further abroad to somewhere with more pace and bounce, which is traditionally the weakness of the Indian team.

Even if the Indian team does well, does that really qualify them to play in England, where the pitches are fast and bouncy? Probably not, and this is something that the organizers should really have taken into account beforehand.

The final, and probably biggest problem, is that this is an ICC recognized tournament. Giving the younger players a chance is fine, but if, heaven forbid, they lose, then India will take a hit to their ICC ODI ranking as well. This is something that India should have thought about, especially with the World Cup coming up next year. While there is also a good chance that the team may win, I feel that the risks of this tournament far outweigh the rewards, and that the rushed planning during this tournament has resulted in some bad decisions being made.

Squad - Suresh Raina (c), Robin Uthappa, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Parvez Rasool, Akshar Patel, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Stuart Binny, Mohit Sharma, Amit Mishra.