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MELBOURNE: India resume their bid for a Twenty20 World Cup semi-final spot when they face Bangladesh on Wednesday and coach Rahul Dravid said there is no room for complacency despite the 2007 champions losing just one of their last 11 matches to their neighbours.
India registered wins over Pakistan and the Netherlands before crashing to a five-wicket defeat against South Africa, who lead Group 2 with five points.
With the top two from the group set to advance, India and Bangladesh each have four points, with Dravid’s side having the edge on net run-rate. “We respect them a lot. I think they’re a very good team,” Dravid told reporters on Tuesday. “This format and this World Cup has really shown us you can’t take any team lightly.
“Ireland showed that against England … The fact that it’s already such a short format. The margins of victory and defeat even if they’re 12-15 runs, it’s actually two hits. It’s two hits one way or the other and that’s the game.
“On top of that, these conditions have levelled the playing field to a large extent, because the boundaries are bigger. Some of those hits you expect in the sub-continent to go for six … it’s not happening that easily. People are getting out.”
Dravid’s side, who are without injured pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, said he hoped his bowlers could stem the flow of runs during the latter overs.
“It’s an area that we’ve wanted to look to address, to get better at,” Dravid said. “Obviously Bumrah was one of our guys pencilled in to bowl two of those overs.”
Dravid informed that star batter Virat Kohli had trained as usual on Tuesday, adding he hopes there is no repeat of the invasion of privacy which left the star batsman “paranoid”.
Kohli on Monday took to social media to condemn the actions of an intruder who filmed the inside of his room at a Perth hotel as India prepared last month for the ongoing tournament in Australia.
“It is not very comfortable for anyone, let alone Virat, it is disappointing,” Dravid said. “But we have flagged it with the relevant authorities, they have taken action and hopefully incidents like these won’t happen in the future and people are a lot more careful.
“It’s (a player’s room) is one place where you feel you are away from people’s prying eyes. But I think he has dealt with it really well. He is here at training, he is absolutely perfect.”
India must beat Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to be sure of qualification.
Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan called his side clear underdogs, but if they beat India they will leapfrog their more fancied opponents.
“India is the favourite team. They came here to win the World Cup. We are not favourite and we didn’t come here to win the World Cup, so you can understand the situation,” said Shakib. “We know it very well, if we win against India it will be called an upset and we will try to play our best cricket and make an upset.”