It will be wise for Australia, the former champions, not to take the plucky Bangladesh team lightly when they play on Friday in their Super 8s match of the ongoing T20 World Cup.
Bangladesh won’t leave anything to chance given that during the subcontinent-like Caribbean conditions that suit them best they upset Australia 4-1 in a series in 2021.
With the pitch expected to be slow, Australia may stress more on leg-spinner Adam Zampa and part-time bowling options such as Glenn Maxwell and Travis Head. They could also consider keeping left-arm spinner Ashton Agar who can also contribute with bat against Scotland from their previous group match.
However, Bangladesh will face a dangerous Australian fast-bowling attack led by Mitchell Starc, with Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood likely to make comeback to eleven after a deserved break against Scotland.
The Aussies have another reason to smile though because before today’s match their skipper and allrounder Mitchell Marsh declared himself fit to bowl in this stage thereby making it a four-pronged pace attack.
“I’ll be available for bowling. I don’t really necessarily see a need for me as we’ve got the line-up but I think it’s really important in this format to have options and we’re blessed with plenty of those,” Marsh said as quoted by PTI.
Australia has an intimidating top six batsmen that can give any bowling attack a run for its money. For sure, there is nothing surer than our Australian cricket teams hoping this time around that each member of their batting unit does perform well collectively when next out there!
On the contrary Bangladesh will rely on using experienced bowlers in T20 format so as to put pressure on Australia’s strong batting order. Such players like Mustafizur Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah or Taskin Ahmed are going to be crucial in reducing runs made by our opponents’.
Bangladesh’s main problem is that the team has had inconsistent batting performances throughout the competition despite having experienced players. In their group stage matches, they only managed to score highest of 159/5 against Netherlands and other scores were 125/8, 109/7 and 106 respectively.
