Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar won the toss and elected to bat against India in the first one-day international, at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka, on Thursday.

The start of the match was delayed by 45 minutes after a brief shower early in the morning. It forced the covers to be put on the pitch. The contest will now be a 47-overs-a-side affair.

Just when it looked that the match would start after the initial delay, the heavens opened up again. With a thick cloud cover hovering, it was no surprise. The groundsmen quickly swung into action, sprinting out to the middle with the covers. The Indian players were forced back into the dressing room just as they started to enter the ground.

Powerplay will be for 19 overs: 10 at the start, the second of five overs and the third of four.

There was huge hustling for tickets outside the ground since early morning after a not-too-encouraging response in the last few days.

India, seeking revenge after their World Cup defeat, opted to go in with left-hander Gautam Gambhir instead of Robin Uthappa.

Left-hander Dinesh Mongia also finds a place in the middle order and his main task would be to counter to the Bangladesh left-arm spinners.

Bangladesh pacer Mashrafe Mortaza, who has been the star performer for the team in the last year or so, was ruled out of the match after suffering a back injury.

In the last match played between the two sides, in the Group Stages of the 2007 World Cup, Bangladesh beat India by five wickets.

Teams:

India: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (w/k), Ramesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel.

Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar (captain), Mohammad Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Javed Omar, Abdur Razzak, Mohammad Rafique, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim (w/k), Saqibul Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Syed Rasel.