Finally, the ICC Champions Trophy gets off to a start as we watch the hosts England take on Bangladesh. Bangladesh are certainly a much improved outfit, but England are one of the favorites to win the tournament and so will hold all the cards.
England are an exciting team, with big hitting batsmen, a number of all-rounders and a great bowling attack. They bat right down to no. 11 and probably have the best batting line-up in the tournament, led by Joe Root and captain Eoin Morgan.
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England regularly make 300 plus scores, and have on two occasions even made 400 plus scores. They have in Ben Stokes, the world’s best all-rounder. But for this game, Stokes will play only as a batsman because of an injury which prevents him from bowling.
According to his captain Morgan, “It’s a very strange injury. Only in delivery stride he feels pain. If he couldn’t bowl he’d still make a great contribution with bat and in the field.”
That should not pose much of a problem to the England team as they have plenty of other all-rounders such as Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid. Even Liam Plunkett, who is bowling very fast and aggressively and is a certainty in the team, would fancy himself as a big hitting batsman down the order.
As for Bangladesh, they suffered a huge defeat in their last practice game against India, and it looks very unlikely that they will do anything much in this match against England or for that matter in the rest of the ICC Champions Trophy. They are just not good enough for these conditions – their batsmen do not have the technique to cope with the seaming pitches in England.
But they have won the last two times they played England in a World Cup, so that should give them some confidence. Their captain Mashrafe Mortaza however does not believe in giving too much weight to that.
Mortaza says, “It was a long time back. And after then, England is a totally different team. The way they are playing, if you look at the last two years, their performance, they win almost everything. And especially in home, they are a serious side.”
Bangladesh will depend heavily on their senior players such as captain Mashrafe Mortaza, all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, big hittin opener Tamim Iqbal, wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim and batsman Mahmudullah. They have a combined experience of 828 ODIs between them. They also have “The Fizz” Mustafizur Rahman in their ranks, who is a handy bowler in these conditions.
The Teams
England: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Chris Woakes, 10 Liam Plunkett, 11 Mark Wood
Bangladesh: 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Sabbir Rahman, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim, 5 Mahmudullah, 6 Shakib Al Hasan, 7 Mosaddek Hossain, 8 Mehedi Hasan, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), 10 Rubel Hossain, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
Match Conditions
The match will be played at the Oval in London, which is known for its batting friendly conditions. Expect some help for bowlers early on because of the cloud cover.
Watch England take on Bangladesh in the first match of the ICC Champions Trophy at 3 PM live on Star Sports!
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