Two teams coming from two different experiences from recent tours starts a hectic five matches T20 International series in a short span of 7 days at SBNCS Dhaka from tomorrow. Australia lost 5 matches T20 series to strong West Indies (All Big Guns Back) 1-4 and won keenly contested ODI series 2-1. 

Bangladesh won Test, ODI and T20 series against lowly Zimbabwe. In the wake of massive second wave of COVID in Bangladesh teams stays in intensive Bio Security Bubble. Bangladesh is experience 200 plus CORONA impacted death everyday and 12000-13000 daily infection. All possible measures have been taken by BCB and Bangladesh ensuring bubble tight safety measure with minimum or no contacts. 

Bangladesh and Australia do not appear in bilateral contest often. So far only four T20 matches have been played, all of which were won by Australia. They played 21 ODIs . Australia won 19, Bangladesh recorded a lone victory (The famous win at Cardiff with Mohammad Ashraful Heroics), the ICC World Cup match at Brisbane was rained off. Australia won 5 of the 6 tests played. Bangladesh won one test at Dhaka.

It will be an acid test for Bangladesh as in the recent past apart from strong New Zealand Bangladesh played against understrength West Indies and Sri Lanka and weaker Zimbabwe. Though Australia also left behind top guns Warner, Smith , Maxwell and Cummins .But the squad has very strong bowling attack and good all round T20 outfit .The batting is lean to some extent. Bangladesh for different reasons also misses Tamim, Mushfique and Liton. Words are around that Shakib, Liton and Mustafiz are carrying minor injuries. For lack of far sight BCB did not bring some additional players under Bio Bubble to fill in the void in case of injuries.

Anyway, Bangladesh has to deal with whatever they have. In any case Shakib and Mahmudullah are the two most experienced players of both the teams. Australia with Starc, Hazzlewood and Zampa has distinct edge over Bangladesh in bowling. Off course Mustafiz, Shakib and Taskin wont lag far behind. The batting of Bangladesh even without some top guns missing would be considerably stronger than depleted Australian batting strength. 

BCB must be credited for slotting three consecutive series against Australia, New Zealand and England before ICC T20 world cup. If these are completed without any interruption Bangladesh would make huge gain in testing its strength and assessing what needs to be done for a winning combination in the World Cup. Bangladesh has to qualify and then feature in the group of death. 

Neither Australia nor Bangladesh have great reputation in T20I. Australia arranges quality KFC Big Bash, Bangladesh organizes BPL .Yet Australia ranks 5th and Bangladesh 10th in ICC Ranking. The mission of Australia for Bangladesh is to judge adaptability of some fringe players sent originally under the leadership of T20 Captain Aaron Flinch. Warner , Smith ,Maxwell and Cummins would be back in the main squad sooner or later. Provied Flinch recovers on time from surgery and rehab he would also feature .The main   bowlers of the current squad would also feature .Players like Philippe, Aston Turner ,Moises Henrques ,Dan Christian are under the radar of George Bailey the new Chief Selector of Australia . If required Micheal Swepson as leg spinning partner of Adam Zampa may also be considered.  The low slow gripping SBNCS wicket may provide opportunity for testing Australian spinning resource. 

Bangladesh on the other hand is left with little options .The players who were in touring squad are available as no additional players were taken into bio bubble on time. Naim and Soumya are the only two openers 

But in all probabilities They possess a reasonably good and long batting line with strong middle order (Shakib, Mahmudullah, Nurual Hasan, Afif, Shamim and Saifuddin.

Much will depend on how Bangladesh top order deals with Starc and Hazzlewood and middle order plays Zampa and Ager. The return of Nurul Hasan, impressive presence of Afif and emergence of Shamim add additional dimension. However, Bangladesh needs playing fearless cricket. 

Any score of 150 plus would be competitive in SBNCS wicket. For that Shakib and Mahmudullah have to dig deep and bat longer to guide youngsters. Shakib holds the key with the ball as well. Bangladesh has nothing to loose. But even competing on equal terms would be a huge gain for them. 

Weather may play a factor as a depression is causing lot of rain in the region.

Probable Playing XI for the First Match:  

Australia (possible):  Josh Philippe, Ben McDermott, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey/Moises Henriques, Matthew Wade (Capt. & wk.), Ashton Turner, Dan Christian, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc,  Adam Zampa,  Josh Hazelwood

Bangladesh (possible):  Mohammad, Naim, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah (Capt.), Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Shamim Hossain, Nurul Hasan (wk.), Mohammed Saifuddin, Taijul Islam, Mustafiz/ Taskin Ahmed,  Shoriful Islam

BSDT: 1553 HRS, AUG 2, 2021
SMS