Sports Reporter :
Bangladesh Women’s Cricket team will take on Australia Women’s Cricket team in their first One Day International (ODI) match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) in the capital’s Mirpur today.
The match will start at 9:30am (Bangladesh Standard Time).
Nigar Sultana will lead Bangladesh team as the captain, while Alyssa Healy will lead Australia team as the skipper.
The Australia Women’s squad arrived in Dhaka on March 17 to play three-match ODI series against the Tigresses.
The ODI series is part of ICC Women’s ODI Championship.
According to the latest ICC ODI rankings, Australia have achieved first position, while Bangladesh have taken the seventh position.
Before this series, Bangladesh and Australia never played any bilateral series.
Both of the teams faced each other in ICC events.
Before today’s match, Bangladesh and powerhouse of world cricket Australia faced each three times.
Of them, Australia won in all the three occasions.
Before the historic series, Nigar Sultana spoke to the journalists at a pre-match press conference in the SBNCS on Wednesday.
Nigar Sultana said, ” Australia are better than us.
They are the reigning champions of ICC Women’s ODI World Cup.
We shall gather experience after playing against them.
We have presented a better brand of cricket for six to seven months.
They don’t take us lightly as they arrived here with a strong squad.
The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup will be held in Bangladesh.
We played series against India, Pakistan and South Africa.
But Australia are better than any other side.”
Nigar said, ” We have advantage that we are playing in our home conditions.
On the other hand, the conditions of this country is unknown to them.
They never played here.
But a lot of players of Aistralia played in the Women’s Indian Premier League.
The wickets of Bangladesh and India are almost same. So, they have a little bit idea about our conditions.”
She said, ” When we played against South Africa recently, it seemed to us that our batting side are stronger.
But when we played against India and Pakistan, it seemed to us that our bowling side are better.
I want to see which unit (batting or bowling) can contribute most in tomorrow’s match.”