Bangladesh may bring back Taskin, while England may not yet risk playing Wood after a niggle made him miss out against West Indies

Big Picture

Moeen Ali and Tymal Mills led the destruction before Adil Rashid ran through the West Indies lower order with extraordinary figures of 4 for 2. England bowled West Indies out for 55, their second-lowest all out total in T20Is, and the lowest total by a Test-playing nation in the T20 World Cup.

And although England lost four wickets in the short chase, that wouldn’t have bothered Eoin Morgan, as they preferred to tweak their batting order to suit the situation. Already Jason Roy and Jos Buttler offer one of the most dangerous opening pairings in the world, while a middle order consisting of Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone and Morgan remains a handful for any bowling attack.

Also, England’s bowlers remain a threat for Bangladesh despite their encouraging score against Sri Lanka in Sharjah. Although Mohammad Naim remains in good form with two fifties in three innings in the tournament so far, he must pick up the pace once set. Liton Das hasn’t hit his strides yet, with two dropped catches against Sri Lanka further denting his confidence.

Thus, Bangladesh will be reliant on their middle-order engine room of Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and captain Mahmudullah. Although Shakib missed out on a good score against Sri Lanka at No. 3, it is unlikely he will not be in the runs for too long, as Mushfiqur finally struck a T20I fifty in the last game – his first in two years.

Mahmudullah has his work cut out too. He is among the runs but his captaincy was being questioned after he used himself and Afif Hossain for three overs against Sri Lanka’s left-hand batters, which eventually turned out to be big ones for the opponents. Bangladesh can’t afford too many such mistakes against England or in any of their remaining matches.

They had said that they targeted reaching the semi-final this time, but for now they need to get going with a win first. England, meanwhile, look primed for another big performance.

Form guide

Bangladesh LWWLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
England WWWLW

In the spotlight

Bangladesh (probable): 1 Mohammad Naim, 2 Liton Das, 3 Shakib Al Hasan, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim, 5 Mahmudullah (capt), 6 Afif Hossain, 7 Nurul Hasan (wk), 8 Mahedi Hasan, 9 Nasum Ahmed, 10 Taskin Ahmed, 11 Mustafizur Rahman

England (probable): 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Jonny Bairstow, 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Eoin Morgan, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Tymal Mills/Mark Wood

Stats and trivia

Quotes

“I’m working as hard as I ever have off the field. I’ve had another really good training session and things feel like they’re getting back to where they were in the summer. Hopefully I can take that into the next couple of games.”
England batter Liam Livingstone is confident of a return to form after a lean run since the start of the IPL.

“We have the cutters of Mustafizur, the death bowling of Saifuddin and the pace of Taskin. We also have the pace of the left-handed variety of Shoriful in our squad. The captain, the coach and the chairman of selectors will look at all those options, and then choose the best option to win the match.”
Bangladesh fast-bowling coach Ottis Gibson is banking on the variety of his attack against England.