Bangladesh will look to bounce from their opening defeat and keep their quarter-final dream on track when they face Ireland in their second World Cup match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Friday.
A string of changes are expected in the Tigers’ line-up with pace bowler Shafiul Islam struggling for his fitness having picked up a shoulder injury while attempting a catch on Wednesday’s practice.
The injury did not look serious initially and Shafiul was expecting to become fit before the Ireland game, but skipper Sakib al Hasan, speaking in his pre-match press briefing, cast a doubt on his fitness.
‘Maybe we will need a change because Shafiul Islam is not 100 per cent fit,’ Sakib said. ‘We will examine him tomorrow (Friday) and then we will decide.’
Nazmul Hossain is expected to take the field should Shafiul, the most consistent Bangladesh pace bowler over the last one year, fails to overcome his problem. Bangladesh at times thought to gamble with just one pace bowler and an additional spinner, an idea which they abandoned considering the magnitude of the game.
Instead, the team management has opted to increase the batting strength adding Mohammad Ashraful to the line-up at the expense of Mahmudullah.
The decision to take Ashraful was made apparently keeping the batting powerplay in mind, something which the Tigers failed to use for the good of the team in the previous match.
Bangladesh took the batting powerplay against India in the opening match in the 43rd over, a time when a defeat was all but confirmed with their asking run-rate already on a sky high.
With no pressure on them to achieve the near impossible target at that stage, they added only 30 runs in five overs of powerplay and lost three wickets, which effectively denied them of a chance of crossing the 300-run barrier.
The batting powerplay woes also helped Naeem Islam, who was otherwise expected to make room for Ashraful, and cost Mahmudullah his place.
The team management hoped Ashraful with his decent off-spin will also be able to share the burden of fifth bowler with Naeem.
With Mahmudullah out of equation, Bangladesh are now hoping Sakib and Abdur Razzak to take the maximum responsibility against a side who are believed to be weak against spin.
Describing the game as a must-win contest for Bangladesh, Sakib said condition will also give them an edge over Ireland, who embarrassed Bangladesh in the previous World Cup before knocking them out at the first round of the ICC World Twenty20.
‘I don’t think they like to play in this condition. Last time when they came here they didn’t handle our spin well,’ said Sakib.
Sakib was also relieved with the minimisation of dew factor which misled him in the India game after winning the toss.
Sakib opted for bowling fearing dew to cause problem for his spinners in the second part of the game only to see India ending the contest half-way through the game with a massive total of 370-4.
‘I don’t think toss will make any difference because for the last few days there was no dew,’ conceded Sakib, indicating that he may decide to bat first this time around provided he can call the coin successfully.
Courtesy of New Age
