Rishad gets another
The promoted Dube lasts just three balls. Not sure he picked the wrong'un from Rishad, ends up sort of skewing it to the fielder at long-off. India are 83 for 2 in 8.1 overs.
Fifty
Abhishek brings up his half-century off 25 balls. That's almost slow by his standards.
3
Rishad breaks through
India keep going hard after the powerplay, as you'd expect from a side with all 10 wickets in hand. Gill slaps Rishad Hossain's first ball through the covers for four, but is dismissed off his next legal ball. He steps out, tries to go big down the ground, but doesn't quite get to the pitch of the ball. He's caught at long-off for 29 off 19. India are 77 for 1 in 6.2 overs.
And India promote their designated spin-hitter, even though it means they have a left-left pair at the crease. That's something they usually look to avoid. Shivam Dube walks in at No. 3.
1
22nd T20I, 56 sixes and counting
Abhishek Sharma hits sixes at an absurd rate. Just look at this. He's already India's eighth-most prolific six-hitter in T20Is, and he's closing in on the guy at No. 7, and this is only his 21st innings. Look at who he's sandwiched between. Suresh Raina hit 58 sixes in 66 innings, and MS Dhoni hit 52 sixes in 85 innings.
Abhishek has hit three sixes already today. He hit two off Mustafizur Rahman in the fifth over, then a six and three successive fours off Mohammad Saifuddin in the sixth over. He's moved to 46 off 19 balls, and India end the powerplay at 72 for no loss. Remember how well Bangladesh started with the new ball? It's a distant memory now.
1
Gill and Abhishek take down Nasum
Gill uses his feet to put pressure on the left-arm spinner right at the start of the fourth over, gets right to the pitch and drills him past mid-on for four. Then he does it again and launches him for a big six over wide long-on.
When Gill returns to the strike, Nasum drops a touch short - maybe a consequence of those two step-out hits - and gets cut for a three that would have been four on most outfields. This is a really, really slow one.
That brings Abhishek on strike for the last ball, and he needs no help from the outfield. Jumps out and frees his arms to send the ball soaring high and far over long-on. 21 off the over. India are 38 for no loss.
1
2
1
Jaker drops Abhishek
Tanzim follows a superb first over with a superb second over. He's swinging it, but he's also hitting the deck hard, and he produces a genuine chance with the third ball. Creates uncertainty in Abhishek with the angle across; he expects this hard-length ball to maybe straighten into him, but it nips away, or just keeps going with the angle. Fences at it, gets a thick edge, and Jaker - not a regular keeper, remember - dives to his left and fails to hold on.
India end the third over at 17 for no loss. Signs that this is a slow outfield too - Gill clips the last ball of the over sweetly between mid-on and midwicket, but it slows down well before reaching the boundary, and he only gets three runs for the shot.
1
New-ball swing
Tanzim Hasab Sakib is a genuine outswing bowler, and he found enough of it in the first over to beat Shubman Gill's outside edge twice.
Nasum Ahmed is a clever, skillful left-arm spinner and he found enough swing to get his arm ball swerving away from the left-handed Abhishek Sharma. Beat him once, produced an edge that flew over short third, and then got him jabbing one straight back, just far enough out of reach for it not to be a return-catch chance.
Good start from Bangladesh, but India's openers are still together. 10 for 0 after two overs.
2
Bangladesh bowl, Litton misses out
Toss Bangladesh chose to bowl vs India
Jaker Ali, Bangladesh’s 12th T20I captain, won his first toss and chose to bowl in the Asia Cup Super Fours match against India in Dubai. Jaker stepped into the role - and also took over the wicketkeeping gloves - with Litton Das ruled out with a side strain.
With Litton out, Parvez Hossain Emon came back into the side and is expected to open alongside Tanzid Hasan, with Saif Hasan moving down to No. 3. Bangladesh made three other changes from the XI that beat Sri Lanka on Saturday, all to their bowling attack. Out went the offspinner Mahedi Hasan and seamers Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam, and in came legspinner Rishad Hossain, fast bowler Tanzim Hasan Sakib, and the seam-bowling allrounder Mohammad Saifuddin who plays his first match of the tournament.
India were unchanged as expected.
India: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Sanju Samson (wk), 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit Bumrah.
Bangladesh: 1 Tanzid Hasan, 2 Parvez Hossain Emon, 3 Saif Hasan, 4 Towhid Hridoy, 5 Jaker Ali (capt & wk), 6 Shamim Hossain, 7 Mohammad Saifuddin, 8 Rishad Hossain, 9 Nasum Ahmed, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Tanzim Hasan Sakib.
8
3
Two spin trios face off
We've all heard and spoken a lot about Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel. Today, though, could feature another impressive spin trio, in conditions perfectly suited to them. Bangladesh have Nasum Ahmed, Mahedi Hasan and Rishad Hossain - left-arm orthodox, offspin, legspin - and those three, perhaps, could be crucial to how tonight's Super Fours match pans out. And that's before we mention Bangladesh's fast spinner Mustafizur Rahman, who's had a terrific tournament so far. It remains to be seen, of course, if Bangladesh include all their spinners - Rishad didn't feature in their last game against Sri Lanka.
Either way, India are heavy favourites, but this is just the kind of team and contest they'll be wary of. Both teams have played one match each in this stage of the Asia Cup, and both teams won their respective matches. How tonight goes could give us a pretty good idea of the identity of one of Sunday's finalists.
1
7
1