Bangladesh Under-19 cricket team in a bid to regain the title of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup will begin their warm up from today with taking on their Asian rivals Sri Lanka.
The young Tigers will start their assignment from Pretoria with practice matches against Sri Lanka and Australia and will embark on their main mission from January 20 in Bloemfontein with taking on the five times champions India.
Bangladesh will play their second practice match against Australia at the same ground in Pretoria on January 17.
The Young Tigers left the country with huge motivations when they won the Asia Cup cricket before their departure home with aiming to redeem the World Cup title, they won in South Africa in 2020.
However, in their five times meetings Bangladesh U-19 cricket team and Sri Lanka, won two matches each and lost as many matches when one match was abandoned due to rain.
Specially, in the Asia Cup, Bangladesh had a comprehensive six wickets win over their Sri Lankan Under-19 counterparts in United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2023.
Right one month back in the Asia Cup on December 13, Sri Lanka batted first and were all out for 204 runs, Bangladesh chased the target for four wickets and 55 balls to spare when Ashiqur Rahman Shibli scored a brilliant unbeaten 116 runs when Wasi Siddiquee claiming three wickets for 30 runs in hid 10 overs spells. In 2020 Bangladesh, led by Akbar Ali won the ICC Under-19 World Club in 2020 and that was also in South Africa.
This time Bangladesh went South Africa led by Mahfuzur Rahman Rabby when the Young Tigers won the Asia Cup under his leadership in UAE.
The bowling all rounder, Rabby, who could not do well in batting in the Asia Cup, expressed his confidence to do well in South Africas.
Rabbi scored only 28 runs in three matches he batted with highest 21 against UAE in the group stage, three runs against India in the semifinal and unbeaten five against UAE in the final.
But the young captain was sharp in his bowling performances with taking four wickets against UAE, two wickets each against Japana nd Sri Lanka and pone wickets against India.