England arrive, Bashar confident

England National Cricket Team arrived in Dhaka on Friday ahead of their three-match One-Day International and three-match Twenty20 International series against Bangladesh, starting on March 1.

The current World Champions in both formats will start training at the National Academy Ground in Dhaka from today.

England are the only side to have beaten Bangladesh in an ODI series since the 2015 World Cup when they won the three-match affair 2-1.

Since then, the two sides have not played a bilateral series. The teams have also played only one T20I between them.

The series, which begins on the first day of March at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka, will see the second ODI played at the same ground on March 3.

The final match of the ODI series will be on March 6 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram before the first T20I at the same venue on March 9. The last two T20Is will be played at the SBNCS on March 12 and 14.

Ahead of the series, Bangladesh National Team selector Habibul Bashar exhibited confidence in finding a win.

“We are defeating big teams. We beat South Africa in their den. That series win is the biggest because it’s very difficult to beat South Africa at home. We are performing consistently in ODI cricket, against everyone.

“India also came with a strong team. We also beat them. It’s not like we cannot beat England. There is nothing called easy in international cricket. England are a good side. But the consistency we are showing, if we can keep that up, there is a good chance of winning the series,” he told the media on Friday.

The current World Champions play a brand of cricket that has brought them great success over the last half a decade but the former Bangladesh skipper does not believe that the Tigers need to do anything different to beat the English side.

“England are playing a different brand of cricket in every format. If we want to win, we need to do that by playing well. It’s not that we have to do something just because it’s England. If we manage to do the things we have been doing, then I don’t think we need to do anything different,” he said.

This series will also be Chandika Hathurusinghe’s first in his second tenure as the Bangladesh head coach. The Sri Lankan has already been working with the national team players bar Shakib Al Hasan since Wednesday and there was an intra-squad practice match on Thursday.

Bashar believes that this term will be easier for the Sri Lankan because of his previous stint here.

“Chandika knows about Bangladesh. If someone new had arrived, they would have had to start from scratch. He (Hathurusinghe) is one step ahead in that aspect. He knows about the team, its culture and environment.

“That means he will need less time compared to others. And I personally believe that is the matter of players. How they perform is the important thing. Something good will happen. There is no concern. Everybody understands their role,” the national team selector said.