After demolishing the defending champions West Indies in their opening game, England meet Bangladesh, who were outclassed by Sri Lanka in their opening game, in match number 20 of the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at Abu Dhabi. Astonishingly, this will be the first-ever T20 International between the two sides.
Bangladesh
In the absence of their experienced veteran opener Tamim Iqbal, the responsibility of the Bangladeshi batting will lie on the shoulders of their middle-order of Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and captain Mahmudullah. After a strong start by their openers in their opening game against Sri Lanka, it was Rahim who scored a brilliant 57 off 37 balls to lift his team to 171. With Mahmudullah also giving them the perfect finishing touch, Bangladesh will hope their dependable trio comes to the party against the English bowlers.
Shakib and Mustafizur Rahman are Bangladesh’s all-time leading wicket-taker in T20Is, and even in 2021, they lead the wicket-taking charts with 25 and 24 wickets respectively. With their experience and ability and Taskin Ahmed’s likely inclusion in the team, the team will have a more varied bowling attack to counter the dynamic England batting line-up.
England
England faced West Indies in the Super 12 opening game, and the English bowlers wreaked havoc. Although Adil Rashid had figures of 4-2, it was Moeen Ali who had the most impact, picking 2-17 off his four overs. Opening the bowling, Ali bowled a staggering 75% dot balls and completely choked the strong West Indian batting line-up. Rashid himself bowled 12 dot balls out of his total 14 balls, a dot ball percentage of 85.7. Bangladesh probably are better players of spin bowling, but with two in-form spinners who offer variety, England will be a lot confident of their two spinners giving them an edge.
Since the start of 2021, Joss Buttler and Jason Roy are England’s highest run-scorers, scoring 344 and 314 runs respectively. Hence it is no surprise that England have paired them at the top order to utilize their form. With a versatile batting order to follow, both openers will have the license to go after the Bangladeshi bowlers to set the tone of the innings.
Probable Playing XI
Bangladesh:
Mohammad Naim, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah (C), Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan (WK), Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman
England:
Jason Roy, Jos Buttler (WK), Dawid Malan, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan (C), Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid and Tymal Mills