3rd ODI: Injury-plagued India stare at clean sweep by 'Bangla Tigers' with only 13 fit players

A struggling Indian team severely depleted by a spate of onfield injuries and fitnessrelated problems will be determined to avoid the ignominy of a clean sweep against Bangladesh in the final ODI of the threematch series here on SaturdayBangladesh riding on two contrasting yet brilliant knocks from Mehidy Hasan Miraz have already sealed the series after winning the first two matches but if Litton Das men can blank the Men in Blue 30 it will be a historic first in the countrys cricketNot only will it be an icing on the cake for the hosts but also significantly dent the visiting teams confidence ahead of the Test series starting at this very venue in less than a weeks time December 14For India there were 20 cricketers originally available for this series since there was a very short turnaround time between the first ODI in Bangladesh and the last game in New Zealand as some players in both squads were commonBut call it a cruel twist of fate as within a week things have gone from bad to worse and they only have 13 fit and available players to choose from for the final gameAlso readFrequent injuries to players a major concern as injured Rohit Sharma set for early return homeRegular skipper Rohit Sharma sustained a left thumb dislocation and has flown back home Up and coming pacer Kuldeep Sen suffered a back injury after playing his first international game Seamer Deepak Chahar continued his saga of breaking down in almost all the series he has played since his comeback from a long layoffAdd to this Axar Patel suffered a hit in the ribs and missed the first game while Rishabh Pant who flew all the way from New Zealand reportedly had a niggle and had to be rested for excessive workload prior to this seriesIn fact there will be two forced changes in the playing eleven with Rohit and Chahar already unavailableIt is there to be seen whether India bring in Ishan Kishan into the playing XI as an opener or standin skipper KL Rahul who is now a designated middleorder batterkeeper in this format decides to promote himself just like during the tour of South AfricaThe other option is continuing with Virat KohliShikhar Dhawan combination and get someone like Rahul Tripathi who can also bowl some cutters at mid 120 clicks in the playing XI If the team management goes for a pure batter rather than a utility player then the stylish Rajat Patidar could get his first game for IndiaIn case of Chahars replacement there isnt a backup pacer available and the team might not have an option but to fall back to allrounder Shahbaz Ahmed who could be the sixth bowling optionIndias fivepronged bowling attack will be Mohammed Siraj Shardul Thakur Umran Malik Washington Sundar and Axar PatelWith no Jasprit BUmrah Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja the Indian bowling units performance at the backend has been far from impressiveIn the first match it was plain and simple poor bowling when only one wicket to get and 51 runs still required while in the second game Bangladesh scored 200plus runs after being six down for 69In the second game Chahars breakdown with another hamstring injury prompted skipper Rohit Sharma to make a terse statement about how one needs to get to the bottom of the issue to find out why so many players fast bowlers especially are getting injured in recent timesWhile a fullstrength Bangladesh will start as favourites in the final game the bigger worry will be KL Rahul the skipperHis record save in the ODI series win against a belowpar Zimbabwe has been dismal and the last thing he would need is another clean sweep defeat against his name after the tour of South AfricaTill now there has been little or no indication that Rahul is a longtime future India captain who has displayed above average leadership acumen in the matches that he has led so farThe Teams FromIndia KL Rahul captain Shikhar Dhawan Virat Kohli Shreyas Iyer Ishan Kishan wk Mohammed Siraj Rajat Patidar Rahul Tripathi Washington Sundar Shahbaz Ahmed Axar Patel Shardul Thakur Umran MalikBangladesh Litton Kumer Das Anamul Hague Bijoy Shakib Al Hasan Mushfiqur Rahim Afif Hossain Yasir All Chowdhury Mehidy Hasan Miraz Mustafizur Rahman Taskin Ahmed Hasan Mahmud Ebadot Hossain Chowdhury Nasum Ahmed Mahmud Ullah Najmul Hossain Shanto Quazi Nurul Hasan Sohan Shoriful IslamMatch starts 1130 am ISTThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever