Bangladesh vs Zimbabwe 1st T20I Preview: ‘Zimbabwe hopeful of winning the first encounter’

Bangladesh vs Zimbabwe 1st T20I Preview: ‘Zimbabwe hopeful of winning the first encounter’: After a convincing series win against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh will look for another series victory as the matches progress to the shortest format of the game consisting of two T20Is. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are coming into the T20 format with previous T20 losses with Bangladesh losing 2-0 to South Africa and Zimbabwe losing to Afghanistan in a historical series defeat before coming to the subcontinent. But Bangladesh look like a completely different team with them getting success in all departments of the game and Zimbabwe playing with lost confidence and not performing well as a team.

So here is how the teams stand before the first encounter in the T20s.

Bangladesh:

Within one year Bangladesh have improved as a unit and are truly the ODI tigers of this year. Nobody would’ve expected Bangladesh to qualify to the Champions trophy and win 5 ODI series in a row.

Firstly, it’s the remarkable return of Imrul Kayes, who just scored back-to-back fifties and the team will expect him to deliver along with Tamim Iqbal and create an opening stand. Mushfiqur Rahim, the player of the ODI series is in his top-notch form and this trio of Bangladeshi batsmen can create trouble to any bowler on a given day and take the match away single-handedly. The lower order consisting of Mahmudullah, Nasir Hossain and the skipper Mashrafe Mortaza can consolidate the runs and keep the scoreboard ticking and help the team achieve big scores.

The bowling led by the captain himself has the likes of Mustafizur Rahman who can prove himself deadly to any batsmen and his ‘mystery’ hasn’t been solved by any batsman yet and this bowler is truly one of the greatest finds for the tigers.

The only gap in the team would be the unavailability of the World’s best T20 all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan but hopefully they’ll cover it up.

Fielding is slightly irregular but as time passes, that department also be well-covered by the Bangladeshis. All in all the odds are in favour of the hosts for winning this series if they can stick to their plans and deliver what they’re expected to do and play as one single unit.

Zimbabwe:

Probably this is one of the worst phases, the Zimbabwe team is currently ranked 14^th in the ICC T20 rankings and Bangladesh are up ahead at 10^th. If Zimbabwe fails to perform they might drop down the rankings even further. The problem with the Zimbabwe side is that they’ve good batsmen and good bowlers but they’re not performing as one unit. Both the bowlers and batsmen have equal contribution to win a match and if any of them fail, it becomes very difficult to go for a win.

The strengths that one can observe is that of Elton Chigumbura being a consistent batsmen scoring three scores above 40 in all the three matches. If he capitalizes his starts even further, they can score more and achieve bigger targets. Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza have given great support to their captain and should continue to play well if Zimbabwe wants to win the series.

The bowlers like Tinashe Panyangara and Taurai Muzurabani are trying to experiment too much sometimes and should stick to the basics like in the 2^nd ODI and get the opponents out as quickly as possible. If Zimbabwe play as a team and everybody delivers, it’ll be a strong team to face against.

Pitch:

The pitch in the Sher-e-Bangla stadium will be hard and there’ll be a slight bit of turn as the game progresses. As one could observe, the dew plays an important role as the match goes on and batting first and setting a target would be preferable as seen in the previous encounters.

Last 5 Encounters

Bangladesh: LLWLL

Zimbabwe: LLLLL

Stats:

204/5: Highest score in this stadium. Scored by New Zealand against Bangladesh in November 2013

251: T20I runs scored by Mushfiqur Rahim in this stadium. It’s the second highest behind Virat Kohli from India

79: Highest score by a Zimbabwean batsman in T20I. The record held by Hamilton Masakadza

13: The most number of catches by a Bangladeshi batsman held by Nasir Hossain.

Squad:

Bangladesh squad:

Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Arafat Sunny, Jubair Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Al-Amin Hossain, Anamul Haque, Kamrul Islam Rabbi

Zimbabwe squad:

Elton Chigumbura (captain), Sikandar Raza, Regis Chakabva, Chamu Chibhabha, Tendai Chisoro, Graeme Cremer, Craig Ervine, Luke Jongwe, Neville Madziva, Wellington Masakadza, Richmond Mutumbami, Taurai Muzarabani, John Nyumbu, Tinashe Panyangara, Malcolm Waller, Sean Williams