Bangladesh will have the last opportunity to fine-tune for their T20 World Cup campaign when they take on the USA for a three-match series.
The series opening game is today at Prairie View Cricket Complex in Houston, Texas.
The match starts at 9 pm Bangladesh Time. All of the matches of the series will be held at this venue.
The second and third match is on May 23 and 25.
While it’s a three-match series, the two teams will play an official warm-up game again on May 28, also at this venue, meaning they will lock horns four times ahead of the tournament proper.
However, the match has historical value also.
The first T20 will be the first time the two teams will play against each other in this format.
Since playing their first T20 International in 2006, Bangladesh have already played against 20 teams in this format. USA, the co-host of the T20 World Cup, will be the 21st opponent for Bangladesh.
The USA team is formed with migrant players, especially since there is a domination of the Indian origin player.
But one name will certainly draw the attention and he is none other than Corey Anderson.
Corey Anderson played for New Zealand and was the holder of the fastest ODI ton before South Africa’s AB de Villiers erased his name from the record book. Anderson also played against Bangladesh when he was a regular player in New Zealand.
He migrated to the USA and finally made his debut last month.
Seven years ago, Anderson struck 10 sixes in his unbeaten 41-ball 94 against Bangladesh in Mount Maunganui.
It is the most sixes hit against Bangladesh in a T20I innings, and the third-highest strike rate for a 75-plus run knock.
The other players were no known that much apart from Ali Khan, a right-arm fast bowler who played IPL, PSL and several other T20 leagues around the world. Ali Khan was also the part of Khulna Titans in BPL. However, like Ali Khan, there are some other players, who have exposure in top T20 leagues around the world.
Nonetheless, Bangladesh will start as the favourite to win all of the matches against the USA.
While Bangladesh will be keen to win all of the matches, at the same time, they will try to fix some issues, which arose during the T20 series against Zimbabwe. Bangladesh though won the series by 4-1, their batting in the powerplay and batting collapse were the issues that haunted them.
Bangladesh’s bowling has been up to the mark over the two years but they would have to face off teams like South Africa and Sri Lanka in the group phase and those two teams are expert users of the powerplay.
Therefore the issue is how to contain runs against big hitters on a big stage. The USA series will be a good drill for pacing the innings and containing runs in powerplay.
"It's really challenging in the Powerplay, especially in T20s. This is a game of runs. [The challenge will be] conceding as few runs as possible while bowling. It is really challenging," Bangladesh allrounder Mahedi Hasan said.
Squad
Bangladesh: Najmul Hossain Shanto ( Captain), Taskin Ahmed (Vice Captain), Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Shakib Al Hasan, Towhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah Riyad, Jaker Ali Anik, Tanvir Islam, Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Tanzim Hasan Sakib.
Traveling reserves: Afif Hossain, Hasan Mahmud
USA: Monank Patel (c), Aaron Jones, Andries Gous, Corey Anderson, Ali Khan, Harmeet Singh, Jessy Singh, Milind Kumar, Nisarg Patel, Nitish Kumar, Noshtush Kenjige, Saurabh Nethralvakar, Shadley Van Schalkwyk, Steven Taylor, Shayan Jahangir.
Reserve Players: Gajanand Singh, Juanoy Drysdale, Yasir Mohammad.
