Champions Trophy Preview: Bangladesh

Sports Desk: Bangladesh have waited long. They will play in ICC Champions Trophy after 11 years. Captain Mashrafe Mortaza, who has recently bid adieu to T20Is, will see this as an opportunity to lead his side to glory in the only format he plays international cricket.

The timing also seems perfect, as Bangladesh created history, climbing to No. 6 spot of the ICC ODI team rankings for the first time. They have left Sri Lanka behind in the race.

It has been long since Bangladesh have been carrying the ‘underdog’ tag, playing ODIs for 31 years now. However, winning only 104 matches out of 328 does not seem to be an impressive record. The good news for Bangladesh fans is the wind of change that has hit the Tigers’ camp, leading them to an inspirational journey. Bangladesh have never played an adequate number of matches till 2015; however, of late they have played the big guns like England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. This has helped in increasing confidence as well as sorting the finest of men for the mega event approaching. With a tried and tested bunch of men, Bangladesh are now prepared to take on the sides that are way ahead as far as quality of team-game is considered.

Bangladesh’s squad for this Champions Trophy looks balanced. They will be even more confident following their historic victory against New Zealand in the Ireland Tri-Nation series. With in-form pacers and a batting line-up, Bangladesh have prominent chance to make big impact in the series if not win it. Let us do a SWOT analysis:

Strength
With condition being favourable to swing, Mortaza, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed and Rubel Hossain will have advantage. The current form of the team as well as the batting line-up is promising. The ODIs before the series will leave them well-prepped and confident before the event.

Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim will be the two biggest names to look forward to in the tournament. Tamim has scored 4 half-centuries and two other forties in the last ten 50-over matches he has played. He also scored a century in the warm-up match against skilled pacers of Pakistan. When Bangladesh toured here almost a decade back, he had captured the imagination of the public, and was even named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. Mushfiqur, Bangladesh’s captain in whites, has fired in big matches more often than not. He scored 46 in the first warm-up match of Champions Trophy 2017.

Mustafizur, known as ‘Fizz’, has had a fruitful comeback and will be the key bowler to watch out for. Though English conditions are not exceptionally favourable for spinners, Shakib Al Hasan’s experience and Mehedi Hasan’s brilliance will be with Bangladesh to utilise whatever turn they might get.

England sort of presents similar conditions to that of New Zealand. Not to forget Bangladesh looked comfortably in the 2015 World Cup. Also, Bangladesh toured New Zealand earlier this season and though it was not fruitful, the exposure would have definitely helped them.

Challenges
The biggest problem that Bangladesh might face is the lack of experience of the players in England. Most of the players will play there for the first time. The tournament, being spread over a brief period of time, leaves them with very little scope to apply what they learn on the field and acclimatise.

Bangladesh batsmen have traditionally not been very comfortable against quality pace attacks. Dominating spin has been their strength. With teams like Australia, South Africa and England all coming into the competition with the best speedsters in the world, Bangladesh will find it hard to survive them in favourable conditions.

Though Mortaza has a lot of experience, he has a tendency to leak runs, given he is not able to hit the 135 kph-mark consistently now. He, and the other pacers, remained expensive in Bangladesh’s first warm-up match where they could not defend 341.

Bangladesh’s first opposition will be England. Bangladesh have performed exceptionally at home against England but the conditions will be different this time. Their next hurdle will be Australia. Both Australia and England are favourites for this edition of Champions Trophy. The third team is New Zealand, whom they defeated recently.

Opportunity
Put in a group with both favourites England and Australia, will there be any opportunity for ‘underdogs’ Bangladesh in the contest? Well, might turn out as this ‘underdog’ tag becoming their biggest opportunity. With a side consisting mostly inexperienced players, not many will consider Bangladesh to top the group and advance to the next stage. This results in a lot less pressure than the other teams, who will have the expectation of many to fulfil. Bangladesh can enter the contest fearlessly and can boomerang their opponents’ confidence.

Another opportunity for them in hand is the fact that they have been playing ODIs in Ireland for a while now, thanks to the Ireland Tri-Nation Series. This will help them acclimatise as well as gain momentum before a high-intensity tournament. However, the conditions might vary in Ireland and England.

Thirdly, Bangladesh have faced the England spinners at home, which was the most favourable condition for them both. Having played against the best of England spinners, they will be comfortable to face them in England, where the pitches are relatively less-supportive towards this specific kind of bowlers. Tigers, who are generally good players of spin, can look forward to the bowlers for some high-scoring overs.

Another situation which can be expected is a surprisingly turning pitch, which was the scenario in 2013. India dominated that season of Champions Trophy in England and later on won the title on rather spinner-friendly tracks. If the case be the same, Bangladesh will have the edge with quality spinners and good players of spin by the side. To be noted, Mehedi Hasan was the highest wicket-taker for Bangladesh in the warm-up game against Pakistan.

Finally, Bangladesh will face New Zealand among their opponents in group stage, whom they have played and defeated recently in the series. In the particular match, they will be immensely confident, given their recent performance, and can use as a great chance to accumulate crucial points.

Threat
Bangladesh’s biggest threat is facing England and Australia in the group stage itself. Let us have a look at Bangladesh’s performance in ODIs against these teams. Also, performance against New Zealand, their third opponent in group stage has also been listed:

The win-loss ratio against any of their opponents do not touch the 0.5 mark. Facing these teams, there will certainly be a lot of pressure given their past performances. In England, Bangladesh have played 14 ODIs, winning only three of them, which again rules them out to be the prospective winners there.

In their latest encounter to England (in 2010), Bangladesh have lost their first two wickets to pacers within a team score of 70 in all three occasions. Facing the pacers in England has been a problem for Bangladesh top-order which they will have to deal with if they want to put up impressive performances.

Bangladesh in Champions Trophy
Bangladesh made their Champions Trophy debut in 2000. They played in 2002, 2004 and 2006 editions, competing in 8 matches but winning only 1. The victory came in 2006, against Zimbabwe.

Squad
Mashrafe Mortaza (c), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah, Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain, Mehdi Hasan, Sunzamul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam.

Schedule

Form guide
Bangladesh have won only 3 of their last 10 ODIs, two of which bore no results.

Players to watch out for
Tamim Iqbal: 5,450 runs at an average of 33.43 and strike rate of 77.9. His last nine 50-over innings read 65, 47, 23, 64*, 86, 46, 157, 0, 4. His strike rates reads 81.6 against Australia, 90.2 against England, and 68.7 against New Zealand.

Mushfiqur Rahim: 4,235 at 31.84 and strike rate of 76.6. Average of 128 and strike rate of 88.3 against Australia, 40.22 and 93.3 against England, and 29.52 and 70.9 against New Zealand.

Shakib Al Hasan: 4,815 runs at an average of 34.64 and strike rate of 81. 224 ODI wickets at an average of 28.74. Batting strike rates of 60.2 against Australia, 71.5 against England and 76.8 against New Zealand.

Mustafizur Rahman: 43 wickets at an average of 16. Yet to face Australia or England.

Mahmudullah: 3,018 runs at an average of 33.91 and strike rate of 75.5. Average and strike rate of 67.50 and 90.6 respectively against Australia, 40 and 70 against England, and 28.50 and 81.8 against New Zealand respectively.

Surprise packages
A surprise pick was that of left-arm spinner Sunzamul Islam, who made his international debut against Ireland. He picked up 2 wickets in the match. However, they could have gone for the option of Subhashis Roy as an extra pacer, given they already have Mehedi and Shakib.

Agencies


risingbd/Dhaka/May 31, 2017/Yeasin/Nasim