Losing their first matches in ICC World Twenty20 sixth edition, Bangladesh and Australia are set to face each other on 21st March in Bengalore’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Australia had really a bad game against New Zealand in the opener and their batting let them down in Dharamsala. On the other hand Bangladesh lost by heavy margin against Pakistan in Kolkata.
Preview
Australia were not expecting to lose against Kiwis after restricting them on 147. Yeah, it was quite bowling supportive wicket in Dharamsala but it wasn’t like that much supportive that Aussies could not chase that total. Actually Australian middle order struggled a lot and failed to deliver on the crucial moments. Usman Khawaja is in prime form and he showed too against Blackcaps.
On a note, if Australia seriously want to stay alive in the competition and beat Bangladesh, they have to bat very well and score big runs on this batting wicket in Bengaluru. Bangladesh team is not so good at chasing totals over 160. Hence they must score at least 160 to make their chances in the match. Steve Smith, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell and James Faulkner have to bat very well in the middle and end overs of the innings.
On the other side, Bangladesh got major blow ahead of the match as their prime bowlers Taskin Ahmed and Arafat Sunny have been banned to bowl in international cricket which let them out from world t20 competition. Bowlers conceded 200+ runs in the match against Pakistan which caused them match. And now bowling has become more weaken after Taskin’s exit from the side.
Bangladesh will highly be relying on their key batsmen Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mahmudullah, Rahim and Sabbir to score big runs against Aussies. The fact is Bangladesh team will definitely miss Sunny and Taskin in the match. Tough situation for Bangla Tigers.
Squads
Australia
Steve Smith (Captain), David Warner, Shane Watson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, James Faulkner, Ashton Agar, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, Peter Nevill, Andrew Tye, Mitchell Marsh, Adam Zampa.
Bangladesh
Mashrafe Mortaza (Capatain), Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, Nurul Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mustafizur Rahman, Al-Amin Hossain, Nasir Hossain and Abu Hider.
Predictions
Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch looks great to bat on and we can expect good score. The expected score for Bangladesh-Australia game is 180-185.
Australian team will be favorites to win and as per our predictions they have got 60 percent winning chances against Bangladesh.