India rely on openers for runs in quest for a series sweep

Despite its inconsequential nature India will be eagerly pursuing the twin goals of a series sweep and monitoring the progress of impressive secondline players during IND vs BAN 3rd T20I on SaturdayIndia have already bagged the series 20 after wins at Gwalior and New DelhiThis Indian bunch under Gautam Gambhir has shown an insatiable hunger for victory and doubters can glance back at its resultoriented approach during the rainmarred Kanpur Test against the same opposition a few days agoHence they are unlikely to show any laxity here too as a 30 sweep will sit nicely along with the 20 margin in the preceding Test seriesBeyond the obvious India will also look to add new pieces to their white ball jigsaw puzzle in the IND vs BAN 3rd T20I ahead of some important assignments such as the Champions TrophySo in a season teeming with showpiece events globally as well as bilaterally its critical for the team to have multiple backup optionsIn that context its clear that Gambhir and his colleagues in the backroom have set in motion the process of finding able support cast to frontline players keeping in mind the longterm goals such as the ICC event next yearBe it pacer Mayank Yadav or spinner Varun Chakravarthy Gambhir wants to take a closer look at them and assess their readiness for the sterner assays aheadThey havent been disappointing either in this seriesMayank who missed a lot of action since IPL 2024 due to an injury bowled at over 150 clicks while Chakravarthy returned with a threewicket haul in his first outing in blue in three years at GwaliorThe team management will also keep a close eye on the journey of Nitish Kumar Reddy highly impressive in the Delhi T20 while smashing a 34ball 74 and returning with a couple of wicketsAmong these slivers of positives the outings of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma stick out like a sore thumbAlso ReadLicense to thrillSamson has given a chance to open the innings in this series and its a godsend in T20s giving the batter a chance to exploit the six power play oversBut the Kerala man has two modest outings to show so far a 19ball 29 a missed chance to make a fifty in a small chase of 128 and a 7ball 10Samson will have to come up with something special here not to slip away from the eyesight of management unless they want to give a go to Jitesh Sharma the second wicketkeeper batter in the squadSimilarly the backroom staff would want a substantial outing from Abhishek who too has produced lukewarm 15 and 16 in the last two matchesThe failure of openers has put a bit of strain on the middleorder as the hosts were 41 for three inside the power play segment before the middleorder bailed them out in the second T20IApart from that the team thinktank will decide whether to hand a match to some other worthy names on the bench like legspinner Ravi Bishnoi and allrounder Harshit RanaAs for Bangladesh the visitors will strive to taste that elusive victory on this tourFor that they will need a consistent effort particularly from seniors like captain Najmul Hossain Shanto Litton Das and Mustafizur Rahman who all have been disappointing till nowWith agency inputs