Bangladesh will start their real battle in the World 2023 from today when they take on the reigning champions of the tournament England in their second match at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala.
Bangladesh, who kicked off their World Cup mission with a comfortable win against Afghanistan, will have to face a tough challenge against the mighty England.
England made their journey in an embarrassing way by going down by nine wickets to New Zealand, rivals of the 2019. So no doubt, England will be desperate to win the match against Bangladesh.
But Tigers are also prepared to take the challenge and are looking forward to keeping up the winning momentum when have every strength to face the powerful English, and it will very silly to take Bangladesh lightly.
Considering the head to head records of the previous three World Cup matches, definitely Bangladesh have the upper hand going into the clash when they won two out of last three occasions. Not after their stellar run at the previous three meetings, in World Cup Qualifiers where they finished third ahead of some of the powerful nations.
Tigers won against England in the 2011 and in 2015 World Cup held in Bangladesh and Australia respectively.
Bangladesh defeated England in 2011 World Cup by two wickets, took place at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram when England batted first and were bundled out for 225 runs in 49.4 overs. Bangladesh reached the target losing eight wickets to win by two wickets.
Besides Tamim Iqbal, three performers of that squad, Shakib Al Hassan Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim are in the team of this edition. Though Imrul Kayes (60) and Tamim Iqbal (38), the top and second highest scorer of that match are not in this squad.
In the 2015 World Cup in Australia, Bangladesh had the successive win against England, held at the Adelaide Oval, Tigers defeated the Three Eagles by 15 runs. This time Bangladesh batted first and set England to chase 275 runs to win and booked them on 260 runs.
Mahmudullah Riyad, who entered at the last moment in the team on the ongoing occasion, scored a brilliant 103 runs, Mushfique contributed second highest 89 runs.
Both the prolific and experienced performers are in the squad, so it can be expected this time also they will not disappoint.
But England took revenge for their consecutive two defeats (2011 and 2015) in 2019 at their home ground when they hosted the World Cup 2019.
England won the match against Bangladesh in the 2019 World Cup by 106 runs when they scored a huge 386 runs and booked Bangladesh for 289 runs. Jason Roy was the highest scorer with 153 runs and Jos Buttler scored 64 runs and Bairstow 51. All three batters are also in the squad when Shakib Al Hassan scored 121 runs, Mushfique and Mahmudullah scored 44 and 28 runs respectively and Tigers’ also will have the veteran trio in their squad today.
Bangladesh have another chance come today to regain the feat of 2011 and 2015 but they will have to fight with confidence against England, who would be desperate to win the match.