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Bangladesh elect to field

By Harish Kotian in Dhaka
May 25, 2007

Scorecard

Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar won the toss and elected to field in the second and final Test against India, at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka, on Friday.

India made just one change from the team that played in the first Test. Eighteen--year-old Ishant Sharma was handed his Test debut. He replaced V R V Singh, who failed to make any impression in the first Test at Chittagong.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh brought in the pace duo of Mohammad Sharif and Syed Rasel in place of Shahadat Hossain and Enamul Haque Jr. respectively.

This will be 21-year-old Sharif's first Test after a gap of more than five years. He last played a Test, against Pakistan at Chittagong, in January 2002.

The pitch is expected to provide some help to the seamers. There is also the threat of bad weather, with rain forecast for the next two days.

This is coach Dav Whatmore's last match in charge of Bangladesh. He is widely tipped as favourite to become the next Indian coach.

The first Test in Chittagong ended in a draw after nearly half of the playing time was lost due to bad weather.

Teams:

India: Rahul Dravid (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Dinesh Karthik, Wasim Jaffer, M S Dhoni (w/k), Anil Kumble, Ramesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, R P Singh, Rajesh Pawar.

Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar (captain), Mohammad Ashraful, Javed Omar, Shahriar Nafees, Saqibul Hasan, Rajin Saleh, Khaled Mashud (w/k), Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Rafique, Shahadat Hossain, Syed Rasel.

Harish Kotian in Dhaka

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