Virender Sehwag adds twist to India-Bangladesh rivalry

Photo: IANS

Photo: IANS

Mumbai: Sports broadcaster Star Sports has roped in former India opener Virender Sehwag for a campaign to promote the India – Bangladesh series. The campaign depicts Sehwag taking on an animated avatar of a Bangladeshi ball in a simple game of ‘Chidiya Udd, a game that all kids in India have played wherein a finger is raised by the players to depict whether the person/thing called out flies or not.

The campaign is based on the fact that Bangladeshi fans haven’t held back in notoriously rejoicing over their team’s victories across social media platforms. Although Bangladesh has never won a T20 match against India, previous ODI wins against India have witnessed rather overwhelming reactions from the Bangladeshi fans, and a first ever win in the upcoming series would definitely result in some sparks flying over social media.

Recent close encounters of the two teams have kept the fans on the edge of their seats. The Bangladesh squad have been aggressive in their approach on the field and have emerged as the strongest contenders to Team India from amongst the subcontinent teams, making the rivalry bigger than ever.

Speaking about the on-going rivalry Sehwag said: “Bangladesh is a good side and the rivalry has snowballed since their win in the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup and when we toured Bangladesh in 2015. However, Bangladesh haven’t tasted success in the T20 format as India have consistently beaten them in all encounters between the two teams.”

“The off-the-field banter is noticed in both camps. Bangladeshi fans take their cricket quite seriously and we have witnessed an outburst on social media with significant online trolling in the past. It is going to be an exciting series and I can’t wait to catch the action on field.” he added.

The three-match T20I series between the two sides will kick-off on November 3 in Delhi.

 Published on: Oct 16, 2019 at 19:13 IST

IANS