Bangladesh won a surprising six-run victory against India in a 2023 Asia Cup Super 4 match.

India won the toss and decided to bowl first. They chose to bat when it was dark for the first time in the competition. Since they had already made it to the final on Sunday, they made five changes to their team. This included giving a new player, Tilak Varma, his first chance to play, and Virat Kohli didn’t play in this match. Instead, he helped with water for the players because he wasn’t on the team. Shreyas Iyer also couldn’t play due to a back injury.

Mohammed Shami, who didn’t get to play much in the tournament because Mohammed Siraj was chosen ahead of him, bowled well and got Litton Das out with a fantastic delivery that moved unpredictably. Then Shardul Thakur took two more wickets quickly, and Bangladesh was in trouble at 28-3. Axar Patel got rid of Mehidy Hasan Miraz when he had scored 59 runs, but Shakib Al Hasan, who was leading the team, played well. He partnered with Towhid Hridoy, and they made a hundred runs together.

The lower-order batsmen did well for Bangladesh. Nasum Ahmed, who is the eighth player in the batting lineup, played aggressively and scored 44 runs. He got support from Mahedi Hasan and Tanzim Hasan Sakib, who also contributed with some runs. Bangladesh finished their innings with a decent score of 265-8. They were hoping to win their first match in the Super Fours with this score.

Suryakumar Yadav got out while trying to play a planned sweep shot, but Shubman Gill continued batting well at the other end. He later completed his fourth century in One Day International (ODI) cricket, and it was his first century while chasing a target. Currently, he’s the only batsman in the world who has an average of more than 60 (61.19) and a strike rate of more than 100 (102.51).

But when he got out after scoring 121 runs, things took a turn for the worse, and even though Axar played well and made 42 runs despite being hit on both his wrists during his innings, India still ended up six runs short of the target.

Rohit Sharma Explains Why India Lost to Bangladesh in Super Four Match

Rohit Sharma explained why they made big changes to the team lineup after India lost to Bangladesh in their last Asia Cup 2023 Super 4 match on Friday. India had already secured their spot in the tournament final, so for this unimportant match, they chose to give a break to experienced players like Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, and Mohammed Siraj. Instead, they included young player Tilak Varma for his first One Day International (ODI) match, and Mohammed Shami, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, and Suryakumar Yadav also joined the team.

After the match, Rohit explained that the reason for these changes was to provide playing time for different cricketers, which can be valuable preparation for the upcoming ICC World Cup 2023. “We wanted to let some players have some playing time, thinking about the future. We didn’t want to change our game plan. We wanted to give a chance to players who might be at the World Cup,” he said.

Rohit had high praise for how Shubman Gill and Axar Patel batted.

“Axar batted well but couldn’t finish the game. He showed a lot of determination. However, we also have to give credit to the Bangladesh bowlers. Gill’s hundred was outstanding. He has a strong belief in his playing style, and he knows exactly how he wants to contribute to the team. If you look at his performance over the past year, he has been consistently good against the new ball. Gill works incredibly hard; he doesn’t miss optional practice sessions,” Rohit said when talking about the loss.

Shubman Gill’s impressive innings of 121 runs and Axar Patel’s battling 42 weren’t enough as Bangladesh fought back and ended their Asia Cup 2023 run on a positive note by defeating India, who were already finalists.

-Rahul Gautam