Bangladesh will welcome England for the 2nd T20I in the three-match series on Sunday at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium.
The Men in Green were victorious in the first game and effectively capped off the 157-run chase, with Najmul Hossain Shanto bagging the man of the match award for his knock of 51 runs.
Their victory came on the backdrop of a harrowing defeat in the ODI series. The visitors managed to bag a victory in the ODI series, albeit by a slender margin. The Bangla Tigers, however, salvaged the situation and won the penultimate match of the series, which was more or less a dead-rubber contest.
Bangladesh continued the momentum and won the first match of the T20I series and will be hoping to secure a victory in the second match to seal a historic win against England. The visitors, however, will look to level the series with a victory in the second game.
What have they done so far?
Bangladesh asked the visitors to bat first after winning the toss in the first game. However, to their dismay, the English top order set the tone for a massive total. Phil Salt, who looked devoid of any creativity in the ODI series, quickly fired a knock of 38 runs, which included four boundaries and a six.
Jos Butler has been absolutely lethal in the white ball format and added salt to injury by scoring 67 runs, which included four boundaries and four maximums. Sadly, the middle order failed to convert and only managed to put up a total of 156 on the board at the end of 20 overs.
Bangladesh bowlers have been absolutely ruthless at home conditions. They were absolutely magical in the ODI series as well, but the batting department is where they faltered.
Every bowler managed to pick a wicket each, but Hasan Mahmud was the pick of the bowlers and got rid of Jos Butler and Sam Curran. Nasum Ahmed, despite being slightly expensive, got rid of dangerous-looking Phil Salt.
On the flip side, every Bangladeshi batsman chipped in with cameos in their crucial win against England. Litton Das, Rony Talukdar, and Towhid Hridoy chipped in with 12, 21 and 24 runs respectively.
Interestingly, Shanto was simply outstanding and took the attack to the English bowlers with a well-made half-century. He more or less redeemed himself after a rather poor show in the ODI series. Shanto also bagged the man of the match trophy in the first game.
Shakib steadied the ship and provided the finishing touches with his knock of 34 runs, which included six boundaries.
England used seven bowlers of which three went wicketless. Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, and Moeen Ali picked a wicket each but proved to be pretty expensive, which ultimately cost England the first game.
Head to Head record
The two teams featured in the shortest format of the game for the first time since the culmination of the T20 World Cup that took place last year.
Incidentally, the two behemoths of world cricket have faced each other just twice. They first faced each other during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 where England defeated the Tigers by eight wickets. England won that game quite comfortably and restricted the Bangla Tigers to 124 runs, which they managed to overcome in 14.1 overs.
Their match on Sunday will be their third-ever encounter in the shortest format of the game.
Key Players
Shakib-Al-Hasan (Bangladesh): Shakib has been instrumental in most of what the Bangla Tigers have managed to grab in the last few years. He was the player of the series for Bangladesh in the recently concluded ODI series and scored 141 runs in three matches with an average of 47.00.
In their win in the last ODI, Shakib scored 75 runs for Bangladesh, which proved too costly for the visitors as they struggled to get going and lost the game by 50 runs. He was instrumental with the ball as well with four wickets to his name in ten overs.
More importantly, he helped Bangladesh cross the finish line against the visitors in the first T20I and scored 34 runs.
This makes him the backbone of the Tigers’ line-up. It’s safe to say that the roster will be relying on his experience and skill to guide them to a victory in the second game as well.
Butler scored a knock of 67 runs in the first T20I
Jos Butler (England): Butler has established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the last few years. Things didn’t go too well for him in the first ODI, however, he bounced back in the remaining two games of the series.
Butler has proved his mettle on numerous occasions as he did in the first T20I as well. While other English batters struggled against a dominant Bangladeshi bowling line-up, Butler looked pretty comfortable and scored a knock of 67 runs, which included four boundaries and four sixes.
England will be relying on his skills to register a win in the second T20I following an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Bangladesh.
Predicted XIs
England: Jos Buttler ©, Philip Salt, Dawid Malan, Ben Duckett, Sam Curran, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood
Bangladesh: Litton Das ©, Rony Talukdar, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Towhid Hridoy, Shakib-Al Hasan, Afif Hossain, Shamim Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Nasum Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman
Prediction
Despite losing the first game, England looks like a stronger and more well-composed team on paper. They might face some resistance from a line-up that has looked pretty strong at home. However, we predict England to bag a thumping win in the second game.