Unlocking the puzzle of how the wicket at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium will play and what would be the right team combination are two factors that could decide the fate of Bangladesh's ICC Champions Trophy opener against India on Thursday before it even begins.

After the lacklustre performance against Pakistan Shaheens in the lone warm-up match on Monday at the ICC Academy in Dubai, in which Bangladesh got bundled out for just 202 and the opposition chased down the target with seven wickets to spare and 91 balls in hand, the management could be tempted to beef up their batting against India.

However, if Bangladesh sacrifice bowling options to do so, they could find themselves in the deep end against a heavyweight Indian batting lineup.

To find the right balance, the management has to correctly predict how the wicket will behave.

The Dubai venue was one of the three stadiums used in the ILT20. The pitches have reportedly been given two weeks' recovery time after the tournament, but there remains confusion regarding whether it will be on the slower side or play as an absolute batting paradise.

The recent ILT20 did not see dew factor come into play but that doesn't guarantee that it would not be present during the tournament as Matthew Sandery, the head curator at the Dubai International Stadium, told the ESPNcricinfo that "dew is a funny thing."

During the ILT20, spinners had a better economy (7.46) than faster bowlers (8.08) but pacers bagged more wickets and had a better average in Dubai.

Since 2018, the average first innings total at the venue in ODIs where the team batting first won has been 252, which should work in Bangladesh's favour as the side historically struggle to consistently breach the 300-run mark in ODIs.

There is no cross-ventilation at the stadium, which means that pacers do not get the ball to swing for a long period of time. Thus, length and seam deviation would be key to succeed for the Tiger's much fancied pace attack.

It may be likely that India will go in with three spinners and three pacers in the eleven and Bangladesh will also be thinking of what spin options will be conducive.

India have five spinners in the lineup with two wrist spinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy and both are regarded as X-factors going into the tournament.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh players named their own wrist-spinner Rishad Hossain as the potential 'game changer' in the Champions Trophy.

"A wrist-spinner is always a game-changer so we're looking for Rishad," opener Soumya Sarkar told ICC in an interview.

Pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib and skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto also spoke about Rishad's importance in the tournament, with the latter saying the wrist spinner's role would be "more important" in the Pakistan leg.

But before thinking about the matches against Pakistan and New Zealand in Rawalpindi, Shanto and Co need to figure out how they are going to topple arguably the strongest team in Group A in their tournament opener.