Whilst the English red-ball roster is battling out the Blackcaps in New Zealand, the limited-over side led by captain Jos Buttler is also gearing up for yet another away tour. The Three Lions will be taking on the Bangla Tigers to kick-start
their 2023 World Cup preparations with a three-match ODI series in tough Asian conditions. The opening One-Day International fixture of the white-ball bilateral saga between Bangladesh and England will be played at Shere Bangla National Stadium of Dhaka this Wednesday.
The Tigers’ first-choice skipper Tamim Iqbal who missed the India series due to a grade-1 groin strain will be returning to take the charge of the Bangla ODI roster. Meanwhile, the star speedster Taskin Ahmed who recently turned down the PSL offer from Multan Sultans to stay focused on this forthcoming series will be fully recovered from a minor leg injury.
BCB selection committee has generated a huge buzz through their decision of dropping the likes of Anamul Haque, Nasum Ahmed and Shoriful Islam while including the in-form knights who performed well in the recently concluded edition of Bangladesh Premier League.
Somerset sensation Tom Abell’s wait for his maiden international call-up has been prolonged as the 28-year-old has been ruled out of this series after suffering a side strain during England Lions’ tour to Sri Lanka.
The RCB starlet all-rounder Will Jacks who made his Test and T20I debut against Pakistan has been named as the replacement of Abell and will be sweating out to break into the one-day internationals as well.
The Three Lions are likely to retain the core which featured in the final fixture of the South Africa tour while making only necessary changes to replace James Vince and Philip Salt with the absent Test stars Harry Brook and Ben Duckett.
What have they done so far?
England has already qualified for the group stages of the forthcoming 50-over mega-event after finishing third in the Super League points table. However, the reigning world champions are suffering a rough patch in this format and have failed to emerge victorious from their previous four bilateral campaigns. The Three Lions kick-started the year 2023 with an away three-match series against South Africa and suffered a crushing 1-2 defeat at the hands of Proteas.
Meanwhile, the Bangla Tigers have also booked their place among the Top 8 nations that will be directly featuring in the main event of the 2023 ICC World Cup. They hosted the neighborhood rivals India for a three-match ODI saga in December 2022 and stunned the heavyweights with a thrilling 2-1 triumph. It turned out to be major heroics of skipper Liton Das and company as they crushed down a first-string Indian side in the first two games to seal their claim on silverware.
Head to Head record
The first chapter of this rivalry occurred in the year 2000 and world cricket has witnessed 21 ODI encounters between these two combatants since then. The poms are leading the head-to-head record with a whopping total of 17 wins against the Green and Blues who are standing with only 4 wins to date. However, the resurgence of Bangla Tigers in the 50-over format has given enough trouble to the Britishers to make this rivalry an entertaining one.
Throwback to the heroics of Bangla Tigers that stunned the world of cricket
England’s emphatic 12-match winning streak was broken by the Asian Tigers in July 2010 which also initiated the end of their dominant reign. It was followed by two back-to-back upsets by the Green and Reds at the world stage and also knocked them out of the group stages of the 2015 World Cup to earn their maiden quarter-final qualification.
The group stage fixture of the 2019 World Cup played at Cardiff was the last face-off between these two white-ball giants where the eventual champions registered a thumping 106-run win.
Key Players
Shakib Al Hasan: The veteran Bangladeshi all-rounder has been playing a pivotal role in the fate of the Green and Reds for the last couple of decades. He scored a momentous knock of 121 runs off 119 balls against England in their previous face-off and stood as a lone warrior in a failed run-chase of 387 runs.
The form has never been a concern for the 35-year-old who recently finished as the highest wicket-taker of the series (9 wickets) against India and also fetched 80 runs from 3 innings.
Jos Buttler: The English white-ball skipper is undoubtedly the most important player for the Three Lions owing to his explosive batting style, behind-the-wicket mastery and unearthed captaincy skills. Buttler topped the run-scoring charts of their ODI bilateral campaign against the Proteas scoring 261 runs along with a solitary hundred and a half-century at an incredible average of 130.5.
His individual highlight of the series came in the dead-rubber clash where his decisive 246-run partnership with Dawid Malan for the fourth wicket not only saved the Poms from an early collapse but also took them towards a humongous total of 386.
Predicted Playing XIs
The BPL sensation Towhid Hridoy likely to make his international debut at Dhaka
Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal ©, Litton Das, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Towhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah, Afif Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Ebadot Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed
England: Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, James Vince, Philip Salt, Jos Buttler ©, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley, Jofra Archer
Prediction
Team India recently travelled to Bangladesh as favorites but still couldn’t trample down the Men in Green who are considered among one of the toughest sides in home conditions. Hence, the aspects of current form and home record are granting bright chances to the Bangla Tigers to emerge victorious from this contest.
The English top-order and spin-twins Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali will have a huge responsibility to outplay the opposition in their own game to eye on a major turnaround.
