3 player battles to watch out for in IND vs BAN 3rd ODI

Virat Kohli (L) and Ebadot Hossain (P.C.:Twitter)
Virat Kohli (L) and Ebadot Hossain (P.C.:Twitter)

Despite a heroic half-century from skipper Rohit Sharma, Team India were unable to win the second ODI against Bangladesh and thereby lost the series 2-0. The visitors will also be without their captain as he injured his thumb in the previous game and KL Rahul will lead the side.

While Bangladesh have wrapped up yet another series win at home, the third ODI will be crucial for both teams. The winner could pick up some momentum going into the Test series scheduled for later this month.

There will once again be some individual match-ups that could potentially decide whether the Men in Blue will be able to avoid an embarrassing 3-0 whitewash. On that note, let's take a look at three such intriguing face-offs:


#3 Shikhar Dhawan vs Mustafizur Rahman

Veteran Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan is undoubtedly under a bit of pressure as far as his spot in the ODI team is concerned. The southpaw has failed to make any contribution of note in the series so far and looked completely out of sorts in the previous ODI as well.

Dhawan was dismissed by an absolute snorter from Mustafizur Rahman in the second ODI and the latter will be confident of dominating the opener once again. However, Rahman has also been smashed for 71 runs in the 68 balls that he has bowled to Dhawan overall in ODIs.

This makes it an interesting match-up that could set the tone early in the innings for both teams.


#2 Virat Kohli vs Ebadot Hossain

Ebadot Hossain has stepped up for Bangladesh in the absence of their spearhead Taskin Ahmed so far. In just two games, he has picked up seven wickets, which speaks volumes about the impact that he has had on the series.

Virat Kohli's wicket pushed India on the backfoot in the second ODI as they needed the former captain to score big in the absence of the injured Rohit Sharma. Ebadot continued to hit hard lengths and Kohli chopped one onto his stumps.

The way the speedster celebrated showed just how important the wicket was. The same bowler has dismissed Kohli once in Tests too. The former Indian skipper will be determined to dominate the bowler the next time these two face off.


#1 Shakib Al Hasan vs Washington Sundar

Washington Sundar was the lone shining light in what was a disappointing bowling performance from India in the last game. The all-rounder picked up figures of 3/37 and has five wickets in two games so far.

Sundar has dismissed the dangerous Shakib Al Hasan twice already and will be keen to make it three out of three. However, the southpaw is a quality batter and will be itching to find a way to stop Sundar from dominating him. Coincidentally, Shakib has also dismissed Sundar twice in this series.

The battle between the two all-rounders is set to be an intriguing one in the third ODI.

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