NEW DELHI: Bangladesh's Najmul Hossain Shanto came out for the toss with India captain Rohit Sharma in Pune on Thursday after Shakib Al Hasan failed to recover in time from his quad injury and was ruled out of the ICC World Cup match between the two neighbouring countries.
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Shakib's absence gave a chance to Najmul to stand in as skipper, as he won the toss and decided to bat first.
"He (Shakib) is struggling a bit, Nasum (Ahmed) is coming in for him," said Najmul at the toss.
Bangladesh made one more change.
"Hasan Mahmud comes in for Taskin (Ahmed)," said Najmul. "We have some great memories against India...I hope it'll be a great match."
Rohit Sharma, meanwhile, chose to not tinker with his playing XI. India have won three matches on the trot and will look to keep their unbeaten run intact.
The India skipper said he would have bowled first even if he had won the toss.
"I would have bowled first. It's working at this point of time, don't see any reason to change it. That's important in this World Cup, keeping everybody in good space. The boys are in good shape, good mental space as well and enjoying the cricket. So far so good, we want to continue this momentum. Same team," Rohit said at the toss.
The pitch is expected to be full of runs, with some help initially for the fast bowlers.
Sanjay Manjrekar and Irfan Pathan, who did the pitch report on official broadcast, opined that seamers won't mind bowling first first up and under lights. However, the duo called it a "high-scoring pitch".
(AI image)
PLAYING XIs
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Bangladesh: Litton Das, Tanzid Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Towhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim (w), Mahmudullah, Nasum Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam
