Joyous time is over. Now it is time to show a little more consistency. In the recent past, Bangladesh have come back well after a disaster, but the team has never looked to be doing the same repeat act in a row. And that, is a test in itself.

It is upto Mohammad Ashraful and Alok Kapali to prove if they are really going to be the next Aminul Islam or Akram Khan for Bangladesh. Even Aminul Islam and Akram Khan did not show such consistency in their early age, for which their batting average is still in the mid 20s. It is going to be a test for the experienced men themselves as nobody apart from Ashraful, Kapali and the captain Khaled Mahmud has shown much of an improvement in the batting. It is true that Habibul Bashar has played some confident shots, but he needs to score a fifty or two to really prove his mantle. Akram Khan has also not been what we expected him to be. Javed Omar and Mehrab Hossain has only played one match each, so may be they can be excused for today's match if they prove to be failures again.

But lets not forget, India will not play their strongest team against Bangladesh. So our experienced players will have to do something. And Kapali, Ashraful are not our experienced players. So indirectly, the fingers are pointed to certain players to perform with the bat.

The papers are saying today that the chief selector Aliul Islam had asked Naimur Rahman the off-spinner all rounder to replace injured paceman Talha Jubair. Another off spinner Sanwar Hossain is not playing in this match, so it will be a time to see whether his off spin is to be missed by Bangladesh. After all, Sanwar bowled well against the Indians.

Recently, we have not seen a match recently where our bowlers have let us down. It has been usually our fielders or the batsman who have let us down. It will be interesting if we lose the match after our batsman had done well. It could remind us of the old days of '97 - '99. But is that going to happen? The papers are also saying that the India team is actually an 'A' team this time, and they are bringing out our history of beating an Indian A team during 1994. If I am not mistaken, only Akram Khan, Mohammad Rafique are the two current players who played in that match. And lets not forget, before and after that 1994 debacle, virtually the same team lost to India 'A' in big margins.

Also, this Indian team will be playing under a new captain - Sehwag - a clone of Sachin Tendulkar, who would be doing his best to score a century against Bangladesh as captain. And scoring a century against Bangladesh is like a cakewalk for the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Ramnaresh Sarwan, as well as Kennedy Otieno and Dipak Chudasama. And remember - nobody except for only a single player has a one day century for Bangladesh in One Day Internationals. So just imagine the gap between Bangladeshi players and others.

Best viewed with 800x640/Internet Explorer resolution