Bangladesh will take on the Netherlands in their first match of the ICC T20 World Cup on Monday at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart.
Bangladesh have been struggling in the shortest format of the game over the years. They lost all their games in the tri-nation series in New Zealand, which was their preparation for the World Cup. Shakib Al Hasan’s team lost their only warm-up match against Afghanistan, where they could only manage 98-9 chasing Afghanistan’s 160.
The Netherlands, meanwhile, are among the four teams who reached the Super 12 after the preliminary stage. Having already won two out of their three matches in this tournament, the Dutch would be confident even against a full-member Nation.
This will be their fourth meet-up in T20Is. In their latest encounter in the 2016 T20 World Cup in Dharamsala, Bangladesh barely won by eight runs. Back in 2012 when they played in a two-match T20I series, Bangladesh won the first match by eight wickets but lost the second match by one wicket.
Bangladesh have lost 11 and won only four out of their 16 T20Is in 2022, two of which were against UAE. They will have to play contrarily to how they’ve played overall this year. The opening combination is a big concern for Bangladesh coming into this T20 World Cup. And they would like to get that right from the very beginning of the tournament.
In the last 19 innings, Bangladesh have opened with 12 different combinations and their opening partnerships have averaged 13.68. This is the lowest among all 16 teams participating in this tournament.
While struggling in the T20s Bangladesh will be trying to start their World Cup with a victory to satisfy their fans and also clean their reputation in the format. Bangladeshi fans will be looking up to Shakib to lead the team to bring out a team performance. While some of them have been performing individually, they have failed to bring results as a team.
Netherlands will be trying to take advantage of Bangladesh's situation. They have one of the more successful fast-bowling attacks from the first round. Fred Klaasen, Bas de Leede and Paul van Meekeren have been quick and accurate.
Their spinners have been doing good as they produced the second-most economical attack, at 5.65 runs per over, in the preliminary stage. They will be looking forward to Tim Pringle, the left-arm spinner who has been solid this year.
While their bowlers are doing well, Netherlands' batters haven’t shown up yet. Max O'Dowd scored their only half-century and has been a threat at the top. The likes of de Leede, captain Scott Edwards and Tom Cooper are also short of runs. There, however, couldn't be a better occasion for these batters to finally come to the party.
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan, when asked if his side lacked preparation for the T20 World Cup, said, “We had a very good preparation. The four matches in New Zealand will help us, especially here in Hobart where the weather is a little similar to Christchurch. So, everyone is ready and excited for the match tomorrow."
"We come into this tournament looking to compete. We snuck through with a bit of luck on that final day. But now that we are here in the Super 12s, we are looking to compete. Hopefully, we can start off well against Bangladesh tomorrow." Netherlands batter Tom Cooper, when asked about his side's expectation in the Super 12s stage, said.
