Bangladesh Cricket

The performance of Bangladesh not so bad in 2010 especially in last couple of series Bangladeshi players gave the tremendous show. Recently Bangladesh has won two home series against New Zealand and Zimbabwe. The victory of Bangladesh in these two series picks the morale of Bengal tigers at a peak position.

Format:

Although Bangladesh did well in the 2007 World Cup where they beat India to advance to the second stage and also beat South Africa in the Super Eights, the format of the 2011 World Cup won’t be giving them sleepless nights. Fourteen teams are divided into groups of seven out of which four from each group progress to the quarterfinals. Bangladesh find themselves in Group B along with Ireland, India, South Africa, England, Netherlands and the West Indies.

Bangladesh will expect to get maximum points against Netherlands and Ireland but they will be looking at the games against an unpredictable West Indies and a depleted England to pull off an upset. A win in either of these games would be good enough to send the Tigers through to the knockouts. Also an upset over South Africa or India, two teams they beat in the last edition, is also very possible.

Home Advantage:

Bangladesh play all of their group games at Mirpur and Chittagong which will play to their advantage. Bangladesh have three left arm spinners in their lineup and the slow and low tracks in the sub-continent provide the ideal platform for Shakib Al Hasan, Abdur Razzak and Suhrawadi Shuvo to strangle the scoring and restrict the opposition. This advantage was clearly evident in the 4-0 mauling of New Zealand and the series victory against Zimbabwe thereafter. Also a filled up stadium cheering for the home team is as good as having an extra player on the field.

Form of Key Players:

Skipper Shakib Al Hasan would be Bangladesh’s ‘go to’ man in the tournament. The left handed batsman cum spinner finished on top of the batting and the bowling charts in the series against the Kiwis and followed it with a couple of match winning performances against Zimbabwe.

Tamim Iqbal, who was voted the Wisden Cricketer of the year, missed the series against New Zealand due to injury. But he made up for the loss by emerging as the leading run scorer against Zimbabwe and the Tigers will be counting on him to provide a blazing start in the World Cup. Abdur Razzak’s left arm spin was equally effective as he scalped 13 victims in 4 games against Zimbabwe, including Bangladesh’s first ever hat-trick.

With Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique and Ashraful strengthening the middle order and with the left armers making scoring difficult, Bangladesh will be looking at the 2011 World Cup as the one where they can finally get rid of the minnows tag.

Tags: Bangladesh, Cricket, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, New Zealand, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, World Cup, Zimbabwe