Hello and welcome to Sportstar's live coverage of the first T20I between India and Bangladesh.
Shivam Dube to bowl the final over! Starts off with a dot. Bangladesh collects two off the next ball. Two off four needed. Scores tied as Dube bowls a wide ball. Mahmudullah seals a seven-wicket win with a maximum. Brilliant run chase.
Rahim, you beauty. Three back-to-back boundaries off Khaleel take Rahim past 50, and Bangladesh closer to victory. Make that four successive boundaries and Rahim collects 18 runs from that Khaleel over. Bangladesh needs 4 to win off the last over.
Krunal Pandya has made a mess of a straightforward catch, and what's worse? He concedes four. Rahim continues to lead BD's charge. 13 runs coming off Chahal's last over. BAN 127/3 after 18 Overs.
GONE! Khaleel gets a wicket against the run of play and the 60-run stand between Sarkar and Rahim has been broken at a crucial juncture in the chase: Sarkar falls for 39. BAN 114/3 after 17 Overs. Bangladesh needs 35 runs in 18 balls.
Sarkar breaking free against Krunal. He collects 12 off his third over as Bangladesh nears the three-figure mark. Rahim and Sarkar have added 40 for the third wicket so far. Bangladesh needs 55 runs in 36 balls.
Runs coming thick and fast for Bangladesh now. Chahal has bowled superbly and should've had more than just one wicket to show for his effort. Nine runs came off his third over. 16 runs coming off the last two overs. BAN 78/2 after 12 Overs.
Krunal Pandya comes into the attack. Rahim brings out the reverse sweep, gets four runs for it. Seven runs from the over. Chahal continues. Excellent over. Just one run from it and a few close shaves for Rahim. BAN 62/2 after 10 Overs.
Sarkar welcomes Khaleel Ahmed into the attack with a boundary. Eight off his first over. Yuzvendra Chahal has been introduced into the attack. He strikes! Naim, after three dots, goes for a slog sweep and holes out. Chahal gets the breakthrough. BAN 54/2 after 8 Overs. Mushfiqur Rahim joins Sarkar.
Bangladesh requires another 104 runs with 9 wickets and 14.0 overs remaining.
Naim, meanwhile, taking the attack to Chahar. Collects a six and a four off Chahar to up the ante. 12 runs off Chahar's third over. Sarkar now: reverse sweeps Sundar for six. Bangladesh batsmen starting to open up a little. 13 runs off the Sundar over. BAN 45/1 after 6 Overs.
Chahar and Sundar have kept the lid on the scoring so far. The wicket's on the slower side, making life difficult for the batsmen. Plenty of ones and twos could be the feature of the partnership, for a while. Seven runs from the last two overs. BAN 20/1 after 4 Overs.
Washington Sundar to share the new ball. Soumya Sarkar joins Naim. Turn on offer for Sundar. The dew is yet to make its presence felt, so that's good news for India. A good start with the ball for Sundar: just four from it. BAN 13/1 after 2 Overs.
Deepak Chahar to begin proceedings with the new ball. Liton Das and Mohammad Naim to get the chase underway. GONE! Das holes out for seven and India have the early breakthrough. BAN 9/1 after 1 Over.
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Just the finish India needed. 16 runs from the final over. The host collecting 30 from the last two overs. Wsshington Sundar and Krunal Pandya playing precious cameos. India finishes on 148/6 after 20 Overs. Will it be enough?
Al-Amin bowls yet another tight over at the death. Just eight from it: Bangladesh will take it. Two overs to go. How many can India get? Pant and Pandya in focus. Scratch that. Pant disappoints, yet again. After a promising start, Pant fails to convert and holes out trying to up the ante. IND 120/6 after 18.2 Overs.
Krunal Pandya joins Pant. Mustafizur is back into the attack. Pant in the middle of an important innings here. Gets a much-needed boundary to deep backward point for four. Eight from that over. IND 109/5 after 17 Overs.
Shivam Dube, left handed bat, joins Pant with five overs left to play. Afif pulls off a one-handed blinder to end Dubey's stay and India losing wickets in a heap. IND 102/5 after 16 Overs.
Afif Hossain in the middle of an excellent spell. Concedes just two off his second over as Bangladesh continues to have India on a leash. Six overs to go. 36 balls. How many will India get? Mahmudullah, right-arm off break, comes into the attack and is greeted by a straight six from Dhawan. Harakiri! And Dhawan has to depart. Miscommunication between the batsmen: Pant calls for a non-existent second run and Dhawan pays the price. IND 95/4 after 15 Overs.
Pressure building on Dhawan? He has been around for a while now. Wickets are falling at the other end, but Dhawan has held fort but how long before he decides to go after the bowlers? Meanwhile, Bangladesh are running through the overs. Afif Hossain and Mosaddek Hossain bowl the 12th and 13th over respectively. Dhawan showed signs of aggression with a boundary off Hossain. IND 83/3 after 13 Overs.
GONE! Iyer departs just when he was starting to look dangerous; Islam picking up his second wicket as Bangladesh continues to chip away. Rishabh Pant joins Dhawan. End of a successful over. Just four runs and a wicket. IND 73/3 after 11 Overs.
SIX ! Iyer is looking to take on the bowlers: clobbers a length ball around off over Islam's head for six. A semblance of urgency from India. Iyer, the very next over, times a Sarkar full toss to bisect the gap in the deep to collect four more. He's looking good now, is Shreyas. Nine came off Sarkar's second over. IND 69/2 after 10 Overs.
Soumya Sarkar comes into the attack. Dhawan takes India past the 50-run mark with a boundary. Three singles and a four from it. IND 51/2 after 8 Overs.
WICKET! Leg-spinner Aminul Islam comes into the attack and gets rid of Rahul straightaway. He falls for 15 and India have lost two wickets in fairly quick succession. Shreyas Iyer joins Dhawan and nails an Islam delivery over cover for six. IND 44/2 after 7 Overs.
The sixth and final Powerplay over produces six runs, IND 35/1 . K.L. Rahul found the boundary with a wristy pick-up shot off the third ball, but Shafiul Islam concedes only two singles off the final two balls to close out the over. IND 35/1 after 6 Overs.
Shafiul is back into the attack. Good effort so far from the Bangla bowlers. Haven't given much breathing space to the Indians.
Mustafizur Rahman has been brought into the attack. Three singles and a boundary from Rahman's first over. India yet to put the foot on the pedal. One over left in the Powerplay. IND 29/1 after 5 Overs.
This is a good start from Bangladesh. The early wicket of Rohit coupled with tight line and length from the new-ball pair keeping Dhawan and Rahul under check at the moment. Four singles from the Al-Amin over. IND 22/1 after 4 Overs.
Shafiul to continue. KL Rahul plays an elegant cut square off the wicket for four. Good comeback from the Bangla seamer. Three dots to end the over. IND 18/1 after 3 Overs.
Al Amin Hossain to share the new ball. K.L. Rahul is in at 3. Good start from Hossain. Just two runs from it. Rahul off the mark with a single. IND 12/1 after 2 Overs.
GONE! Rohit has been given out lbw. But he has reviewed straightaway. Ohhhh.. it's umpire's call and Rohit has to take the long walk back to the dressing room. He falls for 9. IND 10/1 after 1 over.
Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma have walked out to the middle. Shafiul with the new ball.
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TOSS UPDATE | Bangladesh has won the toss and elected to field first.
Bangladesh (Playing XI) : Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Naim, Mushfiqur Rahim(w), Mahmudullah(c), Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Aminul Islam, Shafiul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Al-Amin Hossain
India (Playing XI) : Rohit Sharma(c), Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Krunal Pandya, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Deepak Chahar, K Khaleel Ahmed
Rohit Sharma: We would have bowled first as well considering the dew factor here. Our record chasing is good. The pitch looks slightly sticky, we need to assess and see what will be a fighting score. This gives us an opportunity to test out few players from the domestic circuit. It's their best chance to grab the opportunity.
Mahmudullah: We are gonna bowl first. The wicket looks good, so we need to restrict them to as low a total as we can. It's a good opportunity for other guys in the team to step up in Shakib and Tamim's absence.
PITCH REPORT| It looks like a very hard Kotla wicket, no big cracks or dryness on the track. There's a hint of green tinge too, hence the ball will come on to the bat nicely. Don't think the spinners will get much help from this wicket, feels Sunil Gavaskar.
Here's our correspondent Abhishek Mukherjee's preview.
Unsettled by the loss of Shakib Al Hasan due to a ban by the ICC, Bangladesh takes on India in a three-match Twenty20 International series beginning at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Sunday.
On Saturday, Mahmudullah politely declared his team had been motivated by the setback, but his team is now without two of its stalwarts — opener Tamim Iqbal had withdrawn from the series to be with his wife for the birth of their second child. In Shakib's absence, Mahmudullah has to fulfill the role of captain against a strong Indian side. He is relatively inexperienced in this role, having captained Bangladesh in just five matches; the record — four losses and a solitary win.
He will hope to oversee his team's first win in the format against India — it has lost all eight matches it has played against India so far.
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Of course, contests haven't always been one-sided. In the World T20 in 2016, Bangladesh lost by one run; it lost three wickets in the last three deliveries of the match in a dramatic finish. In a T20 tri-series final two years later, it suffered another heart-breaking loss as Dinesh Karthik smashed a six off the last ball to get India home.
Mahmudullah referred to these instances when looking ahead to the series. “We've gone very close but we didn't cross the line properly, and hopefully, we're going to learn from those mistakes that we've made in the past and if we face those crunch moments in the game I think we need to focus much more on our skills and executing it rather than think about the past,” he stated plainly.
Yet, for all its strength, the Indian team hasn't been invincible in this format in the last 12 months. Since November 21, 2018, it has been able to win only one out of five series. In February this year, it lost four out of five matches — two against Australia, and two against New Zealand.
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Moreover, the team is without Virat Kohli, it's regular captain, who has been rested. All-rounder Hardik Pandya and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah are injured. There are a number of new, inexperienced players waiting to be given a run. Shivam Dube, who is yet to play an international match, is a like-for-like replacement for Pandya, while Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar and Khaleel Ahmed, with a combined experience of 22 matches, make up the pace attack.
The batting responsibilities rest on more experienced hands. Rohit Sharma, the interim captain, is set to become the most capped Indian T20I player, surpassing M. S. Dhoni, on Sunday, with 99 matches. Shikhar Dhawan, who is struggling for form, is likely to give him company at the top of the order. Dhawan hit just one half-century in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy, and will hope to be among the runs again.
Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey and Rishabh Pant — all of whom possess the capability of turning contests around single-handedly — bulk up India's batting line-up.
The pitch at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground had some grass on it, according to Mahmudullah, and it is unlikely to be low and slow as it traditionally is. The polluted air may cause discomfort to players from both sides.
Bangladesh would rely on Mustafizur Rahman, its left-arm seam bowler who troubled India in an ODI series in 2015, to lead the pace attack. The batting department has more secure hands; Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah are known to be able to plunder potent bowling attacks.
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