India v Bangladesh 2011 CWC 1st Match Preview at Mirpur - IND v BAN Cricket World Cup Opening Match Teams

The wait for the start of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup is finally going to be over with the opening match between hosts India and Bangladesh on Saturday, 19th February, 2011 at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, in a day-night game starting from 08:30 GMT, 14:30 local, 14:00 IST.

India is overwhelming title favorite to lift the World Cup 2nd time and MS Dhoni's team will have extra pressure to deliver and fulfill billions of dream. Sehwag and Tendulkar will open the inning after a long time as Gambhir will play at 3rd place and Virat Kohli may pick ahead of Raina for the 4th position as he is in great touch. Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni have to give pace in the middle and then its upto Yusuf Pathan to end the inning on the high. Indian bowling is little touchy but the return of Zaheer Khan will give them a good chance and it is interesting to see if Chawla or Ashwin get a chance.

Bangladesh eliminated India in the last world cup in West Indies and they will try to repeat it as the excpectaions from this Bangladesh team is very high which was noticed during opening ceremony. Shakib Al Hasan is leading the team really well and they are capable of doing any upset.

Indian Playing 11 for the opening game at Mirpur:

Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli/Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel

Bangladesh Playing 11 for the opening game at Mirpur:

Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Raqibul Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mahmudullah, Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak, Shafiul Islam, Rubel Hossain