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As the ICC T20 World Cup in UAE and Oman comes closer, the teams of the preliminary round have entered their final stretch of preparation.
Just like Bangladesh, their group stage opponents are also getting ready.
The Scotts are one step ahead in terms of preparation as they have already played a couple Twenty20 internationals in October in UAE. They beat Papua New Guinea by eight wickets but Namibia beat them by five wickets in their latest match. Scotland came to the World Cup through the World Cup Qualifiers in 2019 and George Munsay was one of their key batsmen to help them qualify. The left-handed opener scored 234 runs in eight innings in the qualifiers.
Next in line for Bangladesh is hosts Oman, who have not played much T20I cricket in recent times. Their only recent T20I was against Sri Lanka on October 7, where they gave the Lankans a scare but ultimately lost by 19 runs. Oman’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is, Bilal Khan, can prove to be trouble as the left-arm seamer is a regular wicket-taker with the new ball. He has 51 T2OI wickets at a strike rate of 14.30, along with a meagre economy of 6.78.
The last opposition of Bangladesh in the group stage is Papua New Guinea, who have also played just one T20I in recent times. In that match, they were beaten by eight wickets by Scotland.
Papua New Guinea qualified for the World Cup by ensuring an automatic spot in the 2019 World Cup qualifiers, where they won five out of their six games.
All these teams will target a shock win against group favourites Bangladesh in a bid to go through to the next round.
