Put in to bat first, India opener Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag started aggressively against Bangladesh as they begin their 2011 cricket World Cup campaign on Saturday.
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Earlier, Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan won the toss and decided to field against co-hosts India in the tournament-opener.
Title aspirants India will have revenge on their minds after minnows Bangladesh had ensured their early exit in the first round of the 2007 edition at the Caribbeans.
Dhoni and his men will be eager to settle the score and kick start their campaign on a positive note at the Shere Bangla National stadium.
Tipped as one of the favourites, the current world number two side, boasts off an exceptionally balanced team.
The explosive batting line-up will be marshalled by Sachin Tendulkar, who would be participating in his sixth World Cup this time around and the senior batsmen will look to give India a flying start with Virender Sehwag.
Gautam Gambhir will be next, while the middle-order also looks rock solid with Kohli, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan -- all capable of playing big-shots and also rotating the strike.
In their second and last warm-up game, India scored a mammoth 360 against New Zealand and it will give a lot of confidence to the batsmen, especially skipper Dhoni and Gambhir, who hit an unbeaten 108 and 89 respectively.
In the bowling department, Dhoni have picked three pacers and a spinner as India is going with a four-pronged attack.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, have so far been content with an odd upset and have been generally looked upon as underachievers but the tigers look to shrug off that tag when they lock horns with India at home.
Though they have just five victories from 20 World Cup matches to show, Bangladesh has the distinction of beating Pakistan on debut during the 1999 edition and ousting India and defeating South Africa four years ago.
Skippered by Shakib-Al-Hasan, Bangladesh have a few good batsmen in the pint-sized dynamic opener Tamim Iqbal and wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim. Besides, captain Shakib-Al-Hasan, himself, ranks number one in the ICC's all-rounders list and knows how to wield the willow.
Bangladesh won their first warm-up match against Canada but lost to Pakistan in the second tie. However, their openers Tamim and Imrul Kayes have got runs under their belt in the two matches.
Though their pace attack will lack the fire-power of speedster Mashrafe Mortaza, 21-year-old pacer Rubel Hossain had claimed five wickets in the warm-up matches.
Besides, Bangladesh also have some good tweakers in left-arm slow bowlers Shakib and Abdur Razzaq, who can get handy support from many other part-timers.
Teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, S Sreesanth.
Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (C), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Raqibul Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Naeem Islam, Mahmudullah, Abdur Razzak, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam.
Umpires: Steve Davis (AUS) and Kumar Dharmasena (SRI)
TV umpire: Billy Doctrove (WIS)
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)
Pitch conditions: A hard wicket that is expected to help the slow bowlers in the later stages of the game. The team bowling second could find the ball difficult to grip if late evening dew arrives as predicted.
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