Five cleared to play, but Sindhu
tests positive for CovidEmotions run high whenever a
Bangladesh
team takes the field against India. On Saturday, one can be certain that a charged up Bangladesh U-19 side will come hard at India in the U-19 World Cup quarterfinal in Antigua.
Bangladesh's boys in green will have the responsibility to consolidate the reputation their preceding batch built by beating India in an emotionally-charged final two years ago in South Africa. The Boys in Blue, meanwhile, can ill-afford to ponder about history. They have their own issues to deal with. Ravaged by the Covid-19 in the league stage, they will have their designated captain
Yash Dhull
, vice-captain
Shaikh Rasheed
and three others again available for selection.
The virus hasn't left the Indian dressing room though. All-rounder
Nishant Sindhu
, who was the standin captain in the last two matches, has contracted the virus and has been forced into isolation. Garv Sangwan, who is there as a standby, too has tested positive.
"Most of the players who tested positive after the first game against South Africa have recovered. They have been deemed medically fit to play the game on Saturday," a source told TOI on Friday.
Dhull, Rasheed,
Aaradhya Yadav
, Siddharth Yadav and Manav Parakh have got a couple of days to train and be match ready. Saturday's match will test the character of this bunch. In the absence of frontline players, Sindhu, allrounder
Raj Angad Bawa
and opener
Ankrish Raghuvanshi
dominated Ireland and Uganda. Sindhu's absence will hurt the momentum of this team. It's a challenge for the likes of Dhull and Rasheed to get over the after-effects of the virus and hit the ground running while matching the intensity of the Bangladeshi boys.
While the ill-tempered final in 2020 was played by their predecessors, the current set of players have built a history of their own. Their build-up for the tournament has been the same. They have played plenty of matches against each other from November in India followed by the Asia Cup in December before landing in the Caribbean for the showpiece event.
The Bangladeshi spinners led by captain
Rakibul Hasan have been particularly impressive over the last three months. The Indian outfit will look to pounce on their abject surrender against England in the tournament opener.