India v Bangladesh Prediction: Chak attack in 3rd T20I

It’s the third T20I between India and Bangladesh at Hyderabad on Saturday afternoon (14:30) after India’s big win on Wednesday and it’s a match broadcast live on TNT Sports 1.      

Jamie Pacheco is focusing on the India top bat and bowler markets this time, and that includes a man at 11/4 who knows this ground only too well. Check out who and why in his match preview and his India vs Bangladesh Predictions below...

*You can check out all of our markets and Cricket Odds over at betfred.com

India 

This Series has so far been a good example of India's strength in depth, especially in white-ball cricket.   

In addition to coping with losing three major players to retirement from T20Is, they also left out the likes of Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah. Yet still they show up and win matches virtually without breaking sweat. 

This time it was Nitish Kumar Reddy (74) and Rinku Singh (53) doing most of the damage with the bat while it was very a much a team effort with the ball, with seven bowlers used and all of them taking at least one wicket.  

Reddy himself and Varun Chakravarthy took two each, with the truly annoying part being that our man Washington Sundar was the only bowler to have bowled just one over. In that one over he took a wicket and you'd think that with at least a couple more he may well have taken another and at least dead-heated at 6/1. Which was part of our strategy all along: at that price, even a dead-heat would have given us a decent profit. But it wasn't to be.  

What's obvious from Sky Yadav's time as captain so far is that he sees bilateral series as chances to experiment and that seems more important to him than winning matches, though they've been doing that in the process, too.  Cue part-timers bowling more overs than frontline bowlers just so he can see what they can do if needed in other circumstances under greater pressure  

It also makes it hard to predict who might play in the next one but Ravi Bishnoi might be due a game.  

Possible XI:  Abishek Sharma, Samson, Sky Yadav, Parag, Reddy, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Sundar/Bishnoi, Arshdeep, Chakravarthy, Yadav.  

Bangladesh  

A decent start with the ball whereby they dismissed all of the India top three cheaply, with none of them scoring more than 15, was as good as it got for Bangladesh.  

They did also take nine Indian wickets but when you consider it cost them 221 to do so, it wasn't any great feat.  

With the bat, it was a case of 'the best-laid plans of mice and men…(go awry)' for us. We suspected someone in the lower-middle order could come good here and with just 16 to beat, we had Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Jaker Ali at big prices coming in to bat for us, quite literally.  

Miraz got 16 and Ali just 1 with the man splitting the two in the batting order - veteran Mahmudullah - being the one who kicked on with a well-made 41. Just bad luck I'm afraid.  

Taskin Ahmed was earlier the pick of the bowlers with 2-16 off 4, excellent figures considering the carnage going on around him.   

Possible XI: Das, Emon, Shanto, Hridoy, Jaker Ali, Mahmudullah, Mehidi Hasan Miraz, Rishad Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Sakib, Rahman.  

Pitch and conditions  

Just two T20I matches have been played at the GururaJiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.  

India beat the West Indies here in 2019 and Australia in 2022. In the latter, they chased 187 with one ball remaining, mostly thanks to a Sky Yadav special of 69 off 36; Virat Kohli got 63 off 48. In that Windies game, they chased 208 with 8 balls remaining, with Kohli (94) in the runs again.  

So big runs could be on the board, something we also know from the Sunrisers' matches in the IPL. If India bat first, 200 should easily be on.  

India vs Bangladesh 3rd T20 Odds

1/7 (88% probability) India plays 9/2 (18%) Bangladesh. 

Quite why the Tigers have been eased from 5/1 to 9/2 last time out is anyone's guess.  

It makes little difference. It's hard to see how the tourists will be competitive here, let alone win the match, while 1/7 isn't a price to be tipping at. Or playing at, for most punters.   

India Top Batsman  

If we knew in advance who was batting where for India, there may have been some real value prices on offer. Take Rinku Singh. If we were confident he was batting in the Top 5, then 15/2 would be a very good price. Same goes for Riyan Parag at 8/1. But we don't know of course and that's all part of the challenge. 

But here's what we do know. Abishek Sharma will surely open again and though scores of 15 and 16 in the two matches so far suggest he's in particularly great form, this is a player with an excellent record that includes a century from just 7 T20Is and four centuries and 16 fifties from a total of 111 T20 matches.  

Add to that this is his home ground in the IPL and the 11/4 looks decent in a sea of unknowns.