Bangladesh kick off their 2015 World Cup against Afghanistan in a Pool A fixture at the Manuka Oval in Canberra on Wednesday.
Published : 17 Feb 2015, 10:11 PM
The match is set to start at 9:30am Bangladesh time.
The Tigers have lost all their warmup matches in the run-up to the World Cup.
They lost two matches against the Australia XI and then suffered two more losses in official World Cup warmups against Pakistan and Ireland.
Pitted in the group with co-hosts Australia and New Zealand and former champions England and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh must win the match to entertain chances of moving into the next round.
Almost a year has gone by since Bangladesh suffered the humiliating defeat against Afghanistan in Dhaka in their only encounter to date.
Two of the biggest stars in the team Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal were unavailable in the Asia Cup match in March last year. But the Tigers have them in the squad this time around.
They trained hard for the last few days to get used to the conditions. Captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza expects an all-out effort from his side.
“The wicket will be good (throughout the match)… I don’t think the toss is that significant.”
Bangladesh experimented their batting lineup and team combination in the series win against Zimbabwe last year and tweaked them around in the warmups in Australia as well.
The batting line-up is quite certain, according to Mashrafe, who spoke at an official pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
Although opener Tamim Iqbal proved himself scoring 81 in the warmup against Pakistan on his return from injury, other opener Anamul Haque was not impressive.
A lot depends on classy left-hander Mominul Haque and Mahmudullah Riyad, who scored 83 against Pakistan. Bangladesh also rely on Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain lower down the order.
They have options of including spinners Taijul Islam or Arafat Sunny to support southpaw Shakib Al Hasan, who tops the ICC allrounders rankings in all three formats.
Young pacer Taskin Ahmed and Rubel Hossain may join Mashrafe in the pace attack while Al-Amin Hossain may have to sit out the Wednesday match.
The Bangladesh players are well acquainted with several players in the Afghan side as they were part of the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League and the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), including the Afghan captain Mohammad Nabi.
Although they lost to India in one of their warmups, Afghanistan beat the United Arab Emirates in the other match.
Afghanistan have also defeated Zimbabwe in ODIs during their tour there. They drew the series level at 2-2.
Afghanistan are excited about their World Cup debut but must stay calm on the field and control emotions, said coach Andy Moles.
"The pressure is not on Afghanistan, the pressure is totally on Bangladesh because we already beat them at the Asia Cup,” said Nabi.
Both Bangladesh and Afghanistan draw inspiration from Ireland’s win against the West Indies on Monday.