With Sourav Ganguly deciding to rest his injured back, Virender Sehwag will be looking to make his first outing as captain of India memorable by winning the TVS Cup triangular series match against Bangladesh here tomorrow. Ganguly could afford to take the break as his team consolidated its position for a place in the final with resounding victories in the first two matches, but he cautioned the dashing opener to bat sensibly in a game in which India will be fielding several newcomers. Sehwag has often been guilty of throwing away his wicket after getting the starts and that has peeved Ganguly, who made his displeasure known in public during the last match against South Africa at the non-strikers end.

Sehwag played a rash shot to be out for 37 to receive the flak from his captain. “It was a poor shot at that stage. He is capable of doing much better. He is not utilising his potential to the full,” Ganguly said. The Indians will also have to do without the services of paceman Zaheer Khan who suffered a hamstring injury in the match against South Africa and the indications are that he will also miss the side's final league match on Friday. However, the left-arm pacer will be back in action if India qualify or the final. The 21-year-old Mumbai paceman Avishkar Salvi, who made an impressive debut against Bangladesh in the opening match, will come back into the team after missing the second game against South Africa to share the new ball with an in-form Ajit Agarkar.

The stocky middle order batsman Abhijit Kale will get the opportunity to make it to the team in place of Ganguly and the team management was also toying with the id of giving all-rounder Sanjay Bangar a chance. Bangar has been in the squad since the World but did not get to play a single match in the mega event and was also left out in the first two matches of the ongoing triangular series. Ganguly had indicated that he is keen to give all the players a look-in in this series and the match against hosts Bangladesh provides the best opportunity for experiments. While off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is almost certain to play, Amit Mishra or Sarandeep Singh may take the second spinners slot in the team as the Indians are likely to go in with two specialist tweakers considering the slowness of the track. Opener Gautam Gambhir, who has failed in both the innings so far, will be given another chance to prove his worth and the stylish Delhi batsman will be eager to grab the opportunity with both hands.

Nothing seemed to have gone right for the hosts, who have suffered 34 consecutive defeats in one-day internationals, but captain Khaled Mahmud will be quite content if his boys put up a fight against the mighty Indians who seemed to have maintained their World Cup momentum. “We put up a much improved performance against the South Africans in the last match. We have to keep improving to put the Indians under some pressure,” Mahmud said after his side's 83-run loss against South Africa. The Bangladeshis crossed the 200 mark after a long time and Mahmud feels that it would give a lot of confidence to his batsmen. “We did not bowl very well and gave away too many runs, but the batsmen fought hard and that's good for the team. (Mohammad) Ashraful played a good innings and he has to keep doing it,” he said.

The hosts are unlikely to make any changes to the team that played the last match against South Africa. The Indians were scheduled to practice at the Bangabandhu stadium in the morning but the heavy thunderstorm just after the South Africa-Bangladesh match had left the ground completely soggy and the Indians had to abandon their training plans.

The teams (from):- 

India: Virender Sehwag (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Parthiv Patel, Ajit Agarkar, Abhijit Kale, Harbhajan Singh, Avishakar Salvi, Amit Mishra, Sarandeep Singh, Sanjay Bangar. 

Bangladesh: Khaled Mahmud (capt), Md Ashraful, Javed Omar, Habibul Bashar, Sanwar Hossain, Alok Kapali, Akram Khan, Khaled Mashud, Md Rafique, Tapash Baisya, Tarek Aziz khan, Mehraab Hossain, Tushar Imran, Manjurul Islam. 

Umpires: Billy Bowden (New Zealand) and Mahbub Rahman (Bangladesh). Third umpire Akhraruddin (Bangladesh).

Match Referee : Clive Lloyd (West Indies).

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