Bangladesh, who hosted the ICC World T20 in 2014 have announced their 15 man squad who will look to go two steps better than they did the ICC ODI World Cup 2015 in Australia when they stunned everyone by making it to the Quarter Finals. They have been a team on the rise and 2015 was a year when they finally seemed to have turned a corner beating much more fancied opponents like India, Pakistan and South Africa at home.
Their opening batsmen will be Tamim Iqbal who made a fine start to his ODI career as a teenager when Bangladesh shocked India in the ICC 2007 World Cup. His opening partner will be Soumya Sarkar who is a stylish left hander and who has often been compared to Sourav Ganguly!
The middle order and lower order is probably where their real batting strength lies. Batsmen like Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rehman and Nasir Hossain are all known for their aggressive style of batting. Mahmudullah, Shakib, Sabbir and Nasir are all all-rounders who can bowl spin with Shakib being their impact player and X-Factor. He will have to guide the lower middle order along with Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur although Sabbir has shown in the recent Zimbabwe series that he can hold his own by himself.
The bowling will be led by their captain Mashrafe Mortaza who is a master of bowling in the sub continental conditions. He will have the able support of the find of Bangladesh Cricket from 2015, Mustafizur Rahman. Mustafizur had a dream start to his ODI and test career last year when he claimed Man of the Match award on both ODI and test debuts! There is also the speedster Taskin Ahmed with whom I was very impressed when I saw him in the last ICC WT20, he looked quick and sharp.
Then there are the slew of slow bowlers with a lot of variety and guile and who can be a very difficult proposition of the pitches are helpful even a bit to the slow bowlers.
Nurul Hasan was picked on the back of his good performances against Zimbabwe recently and he will in all probability keep wickets for Bangladesh allowing Mushfiqur to concentrate on his batting. There is also Mohammad Mithun, a batsman wicket-keeper who is a surprise selection as far as I'm concerned.
Bangladesh have a strong squad with a good mixture of experienced men who are calm and have the temperament for handling tough situations but they also have peppy young men who have showed a lot of promise and flair in their fledgling careers.
Bangladesh World T20 Squad:
Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mohammad Mithun, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Al-Amin Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Arafat Sunny, Abu Hider, Nurul Hasan
This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.
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