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Gwalior, the city in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India, last hosted an international match in 2010. T20 was relatively a newer format back then. The old Captain Roop Singh Stadium saw one of the most iconic moments of cricket history when Sachin Tendulkar became the first male cricketer to hit a double hundred in ODIs against South Africa. 

The city will see its first international match when Bangladesh will face World Champions India in the first of three matches of the T20I series starting Sunday.

This time the match will be played at the newly revamped Shrimant Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium. Originally the match was scheduled in Dharamshala, but the renovation work at the Himachal Pradesh’s venue forced the BCCI to move the fixture. 

Bangladesh, after a disappointing performance in the Test series where they were swept 2-0 by a strong India side, will once again hope that this match in the new stadium will be their new beginning in T20s, which they have been craving for a long time. 

This will be the Tigers’ first outing in the shorter format of the game since the last World Cup. In that sense, it will be the first step towards the next World Cup, which will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka in 2026.

Bangladesh got an improbable chance to reach the semi-finals of the previous World Cup when they faced Afghanistan in Kingstown during the super eight stages.

All they had to do was show some intent and chase a total within a set number of overs.

Bangladesh played it safe and ended up losing the match altogether. The mentality shown by the team was heavily criticised. Out of all the things Bangladesh would want to change in this format, that mentality thing will certainly be on the priority list. 

Bangladesh have injected some fresh faces in the squad as all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz returned after 14 months.

This will be the first series after Shakib Al Hasan announced that for now he had played his last game for Bangladesh in this format. Left-hand opener Parvez Hasan Emon and left-arm spinner Rakibul Hasan also got picked. 

In T20s, one of Bangladesh’s ever-itching issues is their top-order batting, which frequently fails to deliver the high-tempo batting required by the format.

Since the start of 2023, Bangladesh are at the bottom as far as the strike rate (116.12) is concerned for the top order batting (1-3) among the 12 ICC full member nations. 

Though the pace bowling unit, which is unchanged from the last World Cup, and the new leg-spin sensation Rishad Hossain have presented Bangladesh with consistency and stability in the bowling unit. 

But overall, the Tigers will face a strong challenge against India. The hosts, however, are on a new journey in the format as well.

After winning the last World Cup, where they ended an 11-year trophy drought in the ICC events, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja retired from the format.

Suryakumar Yadav was named captain, and he led the side to a clean sweep of 3-0 over Sri Lanka in his first outing as the full-time captain. 

Whatever new-look side the opponent poses with, Bangladesh will also have to overcome a historical challenge against India. They have won only a single match against them out of 14. 

The lone win interestingly came the last time they visited India for a bilateral series in 2019 when they beat the hosts by 7 wickets in Delhi in the series opener. 

Bangladesh will certainly want to repeat the feat and hope that that will entice a new beginning in the T20s for them.