|| CF Correspondent ||

Bangladesh returned back to business as they began their preparation for the ‘do or die’ match against India after a five days break on Sunday.

Bangladesh players were allowed to take some time off from the cricket as they had seven days at hands to play the next match in the World Cup.

The Tigers will take on India on July 2 in Birmingham in a must-win game but team management decided to keep them mentally fresh ahead of the game considering the fact that they have been in continuous cricket.

Bangladesh played their last match against Afghanistan on June 24, after that 62 runs win against Afghans, Tigers decided to relax for five days. 

In these five days break, many of the players explored different cities of England and some of them stayed in the hotel at Birmingham to ease for a bit.

There are few injury concern in the Tigers camp but according to sources Mahmudullah is unlikely to be available against India as his chance of recovering is very slim.

If Mahmudullah doesn’t recover before the India game then Mohammad Mithun is likely to replace him as team management believe the latter is better equipped against spin than Sabbir Rahman, who remains the other likely candidate to replace Mahmudullah.

Bangladesh players looked upbeat to overcome the India’s bowling, which proved to be versatile and more potent than any bowling line up in this World Cup.

Consisting with two high class pacers in Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, a wily leg-spinner in Yuzvendra Chahal and a tricky left-arm spinner in Kuldeep Yadav, India looked a side to defend any kind of total.

There they have a good fifth bowler in Hardik Pandya while a fit again Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the bench. This is a lineup which remains at their very best at the moment in the cricket’s biggest carnival, much to the headache of the other teams.

But Bangladesh, oozing with confidence, looked relaxed and looked a side who knows how to deal with their threat

Bangladesh’s new kid on the block Soumya Sarkar was reluctant to give India’s bowling much while young blood Mossadek Hossain echoed the same sentiment. Bangladesh didn’t win any match against India across format since their maiden series victory at home in 2015 though they came agonizingly close on three occasions in the last two years largely due to technical and tactical error.

Soumya looked least interested to play heed in what happened in the past and stated that they are confident that they can give the opponent a run for their money if they can play to their potential at Edgbaston. 

“The main difference is that they are India and we are Bangladesh,” Soumya told reporters on Thursday when he was asked to set apart the strength of the two teams before adding that they are not inclined to lose their sleep thinking too much about their opponent.

“Those who will play well in the ground, they will come up as winner. It’s a big tournament. If you think about the name and fame of a team, you will be in back foot from the very beginning.”

“So we are not interested to think how big team they are. We have to plan well, execute it well. In which area we are weak, we have to sort it out and plug it. If we could execute our plan well and play well in all three departments, we will definitely win against India.”

Soumya said that they need to pick the bowlers carefully if they want to make the most out of their batting considering India’s bowling department however is termed as the best amongst all other teams in this tournament.

“They have No.1 bowler at their disposal. They have high standard spinners. So we have to decide who to pick and who has off day on that particular day,’’ said Soumya.

‘’Picking a bowler is important. So it is imperative who we are picking and from whom we want to survive us. It’s a plan that should be devised well and executed well in the match,” he said adding that wicket can also play a big part considering the strength of their opponent.

“It depends on wicket. If it is fresh wicket, pace bowler can be threatening. And if

India’s bowlers emerged as tougher and sometimes unplayable to the opponents like Australia, South Africa, Pakistan and others.