India’s stand-in skipper KL Rahul on Monday (December 12) said his team will play an aggressive brand of cricket against Bangladesh in the upcoming two-match Test series with a spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final at stake.
Team India are coming into the Test series on the back of an ODI series defeat against Bangladesh. Moreover, they will be missing the services of three key players – Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and regular skipper Rohit Sharma – due to injuries.
In order to remain in contention for the WTC final, India will have to win their next six Test matches, which also include four Border-Gavaskar Trophy Tests versus Australia at home.
As of now, the Indian team is occupying the fourth spot in WTC standings with 52.08 percentage points while Australia (75 percentage points) and South Africa (60 percentage points) are placed first and second, respectively.
"There is a Test championship (final) qualification so we will also have to be aggressive. We know where we stand and what we need to do to qualify for the final," said Rahul during a media conference ahead of the Test series, starting December 14 in Chattogram.
"Each day, each session we will assess what is required for the team in that particular moment and give our best," he added.
"We won't go in with any set mindset. Yes, there is a certain history of a venue, you look at the numbers and take some pointers from that. At least for us we will go there and try to be aggressive and brave, try and get a result.
"The game is played over five days so it is important to break it down to smaller targets. In every session, the demands would be different but one thing is sure that you are going to see a lot of aggressive cricket from our side," Rahul further stated.
Recently, England’s ultra-aggressive approach under the leadership of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum has caught everyone’s attention.
While many experts have labelled England’s batting style as "reckless", Rahul thinks otherwise.
"As cricketers, I don't think it is reckless cricket. They have certain mindset, they thought about it, they back their players and the players are doing the job for the team, so it doesn't matter how you have done it. Cricket is changing, there is no set way of how this game needs to be played," the opening batter said.
In fact, Rahul enjoyed England's 2-0 series win in Pakistan.
"To watch these two matches between England and Pakistan has really been interesting. I am really enjoying watching Test cricket being played like that, a very fearless, taking the game on.
"But each team has its own way. All teams can learn a thing or two from the teams that are doing well. You can't always have the same approach. You turn up according to the conditions," he said.
KL Rahul is hoping that Rohit Sharma will return to lead the side in the second Test after recovering from a thumb injury.
"Rohit is an important player for us. He is an experienced player and captain of our team. He is someone that the team will really miss but we hope he can recover quickly and comeback for the second Test," he said.
(With PTI inputs)
