Bangladesh are keen to carry the winning momentum when they take on reigning champions England in their second match of the ICC Cricket World Cup at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala Today. The match starts at 11 AM (Bangladesh Time).
Although their recent ODI record against England was not encouraging, they refused to give up the hopes of upsetting the applecart.
The belief sparked by two things-their dominating six-wicket victory against Afghanistan in the opening game and the slow nature of the Dharamsala pitch.
Bangladesh spinners-skipper Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz enjoyed success in this home-like wicket against Afghanistan, sharing six wickets between them.
England’s dismal past record in slow and low wicket further sparks the hope of a victory of Bangladesh.
Moreover England are a bit morally down following their thumping nine-wicket defeat to New Zealand in the opening game.
“We’ll play our own brand of cricket. We want to bring up that approach which won us the game against Afghanistan in the first match,” Bangladesh spin coach Rangana Herath said in Dharamsala today.
England had of late beaten Bangladesh by 2-1 in a three match ODI series but lost the T20 series by the same margin. Overall their ODI stat against Bangladesh is dominating with 19 wins and five defeats in 24 matches but in World Cup, the record is 2-2.
The two teams met in World Cup for the first time in 2007 and Egland had to toil really hard to beat Bangladesh by four wickets. In 2011 and 2015 World Cups, Bangladesh beat England by two wickets and 15 runs respectively.
The defeat against Bangladesh in 2015 World Cup forced England to bring up wholesale changes to their limited over cricket approaches. And they were rewarded eventually for their aggressive brand of cricket by winning 2019 World Cup and 2022 T20 World Cup.
On the way to clinch the 2019 World Cup, they crushed Bangladesh by 106 runs. Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan scored century in that match but could avoid the side’s crushing defeat.
Since the 2015 World Cup, their motto is to play aggressive cricket, regardless of the wicket and condition and they didn’t comprise with that. This brand of cricket sometimes didn’t go augurs well but still they backed them.
If England stick to their approach even in this slow wicket, which is not ideal for stroke-play, it could give Bangladesh the edge.
“Both teams have only played one match, so we’re very confident as a team. We know we can play better than we did in the last game and we look forward to putting in a good performance tomorrow,” England captain Jos Buttler said.
Keeping the wicket’s slow nature and England’s vulnerability against spin, Bangladesh may temp to break the winning combination and play left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed. In that case, Mahmudullah Riyad who struck a brilliant century against England in 2015 World Cup to lead Bangladesh to a memorable victory could be left out.
According to England media report, Ben stokes will miss out the side’s second match also in a bid to give them a proper rest to recover from his injury.
Bangladesh Squad: Shakib Al Hasan (c), Liton Das, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Najmul Hossain Shanto (vc), Tawhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Nasum Ahmed, Mahedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Shoriful Islam, Tanzim Hasan Sakib.
England squad: Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.