Sports Reporter :
Spirited Bangladesh Cricket team will meet high-flying Australia Cricket team in their first Group-1 match of the ‘Super Eight’ phase of the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup (WC) today at North Sound in Antigua of West Indies. The match will start at 6:30am (Bangladesh Standard Time). Private satellite channel Nagorik TV will telecast the match live. Najmul Hossain Shanto will lead the Bangladesh as the captain, while Mitchell Marsh will lead Australia as the captain.
Before today’s match, the Tigers and the Kangaroos faced each other in 10 T20I games. Of them, the Tigers recorded four victories, while the Kangaroos won in six occasions.
Bangladesh moved into the ‘Super Eight’ after becoming runners-up of Group-D with six points from four matches.
On the other hand, Australia cruised into the ‘Super Eight’ after emerging the champions of the Group-B with eight points from four outings.
The other teams of Group-1 are: India and Afghanistan, while the four teams of the Group-2 are: England, South Africa, USA and West Indies.
Top two teams from each group will get the tickets of the semi-finals. The two semi-finals will be held June 27.
The final will be held on June 29.
Head Coach of Bangladesh Cricket team Chandika Hathurusingha said, ” Not only Najmul Hossain Shanto is suffering from run drought, most of the top-order batters are struggling. Because it was a tough task to perform well to face new balls in these wickets. Most of the teams played in these pitches without knowing what scores would be enough.”
Chandika said, ” I hope my boys will enjoy tomorrow’s match in the field. May be the match will be a big match. I expect that my boys will do their job properly in the field. The boys have freedom but they have to perform with responsibility.”
Earlier, Captain of Bangladesh Cricket team Najmul Hossain Shanto said, ” I am worried about my batting. Maximum time we could not start well in our previous matches. Sometimes our batters failed to earn a good finish. It is really a cause of pressure. We have to come out from our problems. I hope we can do less mistakes in the second round.”
Bangladesh Cricket squad: Najmul Hossain Shanto (Captain), Litton Das, Tanzid Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan, Towhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah Riyad, Jaker Ali, Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Taskin Ahmed (Vice-Captain), Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Shoriful Islam and Tanvir Islam.
Australia Cricket squad: Mitchell Marsh (Captain), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner and Adam Zampa.