ICC World Cup, India vs Bangladesh: Why Bangladesh pose a more serious threat to India than Pakistan

NEW DELHI: The defeat against Bangladesh in the 2007 ODI World Cup still rankles, as it put India out of the title race. Ever since then, the Bengal Tigers have proved to be plucky opponents on many occasions. On Thursday, the two neighbours will face off in the 2023 edition of ICC's showpiece 50-over tournament, with the recent record in ODIs involving the two teams favouring Bangladesh.
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Since the 2019 World Cup, India and Bangladesh have met four times, and the Bangladeshis have triumphed in three of those matches, with their last win coming as recently as the Asia Cup just before the ongoing World Cup, when the Tigers edged eventual champions India by six runs.

To an extent, those results over the last four years make Bangladesh tougher opponents than Pakistan, who India thrashed by 7 wickets to complete a hat-trick of wins in this World Cup. The Rohit Sharma-led team had beaten five-time champions Australia and Afghanistan before that.
The win over Pakistan not only extended India's unbeaten run against the arch-rivals acorss ODI World Cups to 8-0, but also highlighed a dominant record since 2015.

In eight result-oriented ODIs against Pakistan since 2015, India have registered wins in seven, while Pakistan could win only once in 2017.
That comparison of recent head-to-head numbers in India's ODIs against Pakistan and Bangladesh favours Bangladesh as the more challenging team, which is why India can expect a stiffer challenge in Pune on Thursday. However, on current form, India are the overwhelming favourites.

Bangladesh have lost two of their three matches in the tournament so far to England and New Zealand, and their only win came against Afghanistan.
For India, a win in Pune will extend their unbeaten run to four matches, similar to New Zealand's who lead the points table ahead of the start of India vs Bangladesh match.
(AI image)