Bangladesh vowed to come all guns blazing to avoid an ignominious whitewash at home as they take on visiting England in the final game of the three-match one-day International series at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium tomorrow (Monday).
The match, which starts at 12 PM, will be aired live on T-sports channel.
Last time, Bangladesh lost all of the matches of the ODI series at home was back in 2012 against Pakistan. Later in 2014, they also suffered a 2-0 defeat to India in three-match series.
Bangladesh’s cricket renaissance indeed started after that series against India as they became a force in ODI format. While they started winning matches regularly at abroad, they became invincible at home. Before the England series, they had lost just one series at home and that too in 2016.
England coincidentally became the team again to snap Bangladesh’s seven successive ODI series victory at home and also brought them on the brink of being whitewashed for the first time at home since 2012.
Despite being reputed to play all out cricket, England nicely changed the gear according to the condition in Bangladesh to win the first two matches. In the first match, they dealt with Bangladeshi spinners astutely to win it by three wickets and then wrapped up the series with a 132-run victory in the second game.
The venue of the third match, Chattogram had recently become a horror place for Bangladesh, mainly for its placid nature. Just three months ago, they suffered their second biggest defeat in their history at this venue when India crushed them by 227 runs after compiling 409-8.
And what England are able to do in a slightly favourable surface for batting was demonstrated in the second game in Mirpur. So if Chattogram’s wicket remains same, Bangladesh chance to avoid whitewash will be slim.
“It’s not good to be a losing side but it’s the part of the game. We want to make a strong comeback,” Bangladesh’s Spin Bowling Coach Rangana Herath said before the game.
“We want to take the challenge. We are desperate to do well against the team which is champions in this format.”
Bangladesh might bring up some changes to the squad for the third and final ODI. After overcoming condition’s challenge, England definitely would like to make it 3-0. Their top order batters played nicely to set the course of the game in the first two matches and if the Chattogram wicket continues to favour the batters, definitely they would be the happier side.
The two sides, so far, played 23 matches with England winning 19. Bangladesh won just four matches. England has been the only Test nation which still didn’t loss any ODI series to Bangladesh.
Bangladesh squad: Tamim Iqbal, Liton Das, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Ebadot Hossain Chowdhury, Taijul Islam and Towhid Hridoy
England squad: Jos Buttler, Rehan Ahmed, Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Sam Curran, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, James Vince, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood.
