 "India and Bangladesh will be facing each other for the first time since December 2022. AP")
India begin their long-awaited home season later this week, with the Test series against Bangladesh getting underway at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Thursday.
It will be India’s first Test appearance in six months, with the Rohit Sharma and Co having last played in whites at the picturesque HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala in March.
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India had thrashed England by an innings and 64 runs back then to complete a 4-1 series victory over Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum’s ‘Bazballers’, bouncing back in style after suffering a shock defeat series opener in Hyderabad.
India have had a solid record in Tests so far this year, beating South Africa in the New Year’s Test in Cape Town on level the two-Test series 1-1 after suffering a big defeat in Centurion in the Boxing Day Test.
The dominant series win against England followed soon after, and Rohit and Co will be hoping for a similar result against Bangladesh later this month.
While the opening match takes place in Chennai, the two teams travel to Kanpur for the second Test gets underway at Green Park from 27 September.
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India then face New Zealand in a three-Test series starting 16 October in Bengaluru before travelling to Australia, where they face the reigning world Test champions in a marquee five-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
India currently occupy the top spot in the World Test Championship table with a points percentage of 68.52, and will be hoping to win both Test assignments in order to boost their chances of featuring in next year’s final at Lord’s.
The upcoming series will be Bangladesh’s first Test assignment in India since 2019, in which the the first-ever pink-ball Test hosted in India took place in Kolkata.
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The last time these two teams faced each other in the Test format was during India’s tour of Bangladesh in 2022, in which the visitors won the Test series 1-0.
Bangladesh, incidentally, had made their Test debut against the Indian team in November 2000 at the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka. The ‘Tigers’ however, are yet to beat India in the red-ball format since then, which they will be hoping to end in the upcoming series.
Bangladesh, after all, had recently whitewashed a two-Test series against Pakistan in Pakistan last month, winning both Tests in Rawalpindi by 10 wickets and 6 wickets respectively.
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Bangladesh had never beaten the Pakistanis in 13 Test meetings before the recently-concluded tour, and the fact that they outplayed the Shan Masood-led team in their own backyard should give the Najmul Hossain Shanto-led side the confidence they need to pull off the almighty task of beating India in India.
Before the upcoming series gets underway, we take a look at some of the statistics pertaining to the India-Bangladesh Test rivalry:
Matches: 13
India won: 11
Bangladesh won: 0
Draws: 2
Ties: 0
Leading run-scorer: Sachin Tendulkar – 820
Leading wicket-taker: Zaheer Khan – 31
Highest team total: India – 687/6 declared in Hyderabad, 2017
Lowest team total: Bangladesh – 91 in Dhaka, 2000
Highest individual score: Sachin Tendulkar – 248 not out in Dhaka, 2004
Best bowling figures (innings): 7/87 – Zaheer Khan in Dhaka, 2010.
Best bowling figures (match): 11/96 – Irfan Pathan in Dhaka, 2004.