India's campaign was cruising along, but the defeat against England has suddenly forced the management to sit up and address few issues. There are issues with the opening order, there is a gaping hole in the middle order and then there are issues with the Kedar Jadhav's role in the side. Ahead of the match against Bangladesh, India's batting coach Sanjay Manjrekar addressed all these issues and tried to give an explanation for the same.
For starters, Bangar said that India will keep Rishabh Pant at number 4 as he offers flexibility since he is a left-hander and this can be very helpful in the middle order.
"I felt he had a decent innings," Bangar told reporters at Edgbaston. "He got 32 and played a couple of good shots, got a partnership going (with Hardik Pandya), so we're going to persist with him."
He was then asked about the much-talked-about intent of MS Dhoni and India's approach in the latter end of their chase against England. Bangar shrugged aside any question over Dhoni and said that he was surprised the question over MS Dhoni keeps coming up after every second match.
Dhoni does the job for the side
He also believed that Dhoni was doing a job for the side and that the management and the side were very happy with his intent.
"I'm surprised that this question continues to come up every now and then. He's doing the job for the team and overall we're very happy with the intent he's batting with," Bangar said on the eve of the match against Bangladesh.
"Except for one odd innings (28 off 52 balls against Afghanistan), he has always performed his role. Five out of seven games he has done the job for the team," he further added.
The small boundaries on one side at Edgbaston could force India to tweak their bowling combinations and Bangar said that they have always been flexible and will take a look at the conditions on offer before making a call before the match as far as the bowling stocks are concerned. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is fit and he could be in the side replacing Kuldeep Yadav, while Ravindra Jadeja could replace Kedar Jadhav as the all-rounder lower down the order.
"We know the wicket and ground dimensions really well. We would try to learn from the match against England. We will assess the things that went wrong and try to execute our skills better against Bangladesh," Bangar said.
"The team management will be open to various combinations in the next match. We will look at the wicket and the ground dimensions. We will look at Ravindra Jadeja coming in," he further added.
