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The Tigers are to start their campaign in the ICC T20 World Cup today as they face Scotland at Oman cricket academy ground in the evening.
Bangladesh had a good build-up before the World Cup as they have won three Twenty20 series on the trot, but their confidence was dented by two consecutive losses in the warm-up games against Sri Lanka and Ireland.
T20 skipper Mahmudullah opted out from both the warm-up games as he was nursing niggles and a back injury, but he said that he would be available from the match against Scotland.
Mustafizur Rahman, after a bittersweet stint in the Indian Premier League, joined the team and played a warm-up match against Ireland. But his performance was below-par as he went wicketless for 40 runs in his spell of four overs.
Shakib Al Hasan also joined the team right after the final of the IPL, where his side Kolkata Knight Riders came runners up as they lost the final to Chennai Super Kings by 27 runs.
Bangladesh got all their 15 cricketers under one roof just over 24 hours before the start of the first game, whereas the Scottish have been in the region for almost a month.
Scotland played four matches of the ICC men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 at the very same ground where they will face Bangladesh today, which might give them some advantage.
Mahmudullah and his men are ready to shake off the “underdog” tag and go deep into the tournament, while Scotland captain believes his side can also go far.
“I think the build-up for Scotland has been almost perfect. They have been together for a good couple of months now. They have come out to Oman and played clinical cricket in the World Cricket League and have been on the money in their warm-up matches,” said Scotland skipper Preston Mommsen.
Mahmudullah, in his numerous interviews before he left for the World Cup, repetitively said that “We need to beat the best to be the best”, which is yet to come as Bangladesh stumbled in both the warm-up matches.
For the first time since the fourth match against New Zealand during the T20I series at home, Mahmudullah, Mustafiz and Shakib will play together which can very well change the course of the fate for the Tigers.
Mahmudullah believes that the number of all-rounders in the team will come in handy in an unpredictable format like T20Is, while Mommsen is hoping that his big guns will fire.
“The positive thing is that I don’t think the team is quite firing on all cylinders yet. Kyle Coetzer for instance, has had a few starts but is probably due to a big score and hopefully, that will come in Round 1,” said the Scottish captain.
But it might be difficult for Coetzer to repeat his heroics against Bangladesh as he did in Nelson during the 2015 World Cup as spinners like Shakib, Nasum Ahmed, and Mahedi Hasan could be difficult to handle in the hot and humid conditions of Oman.
