Bangladesh will continue to gauge their strength in the second and penultimate ODI against New Zealand on Saturday with the Tigers’ World Cup squad likely to be named by Monday, a day before the series concludes.
Bad weather forced the first ODI to get called off on Thursday, and chances of rain are in the offing again.
A win today would ensure the Tigers arrive at the showpiece on the back of some momentum. Even though the conditions will unlikely resemble the ones at the World Cup in India in October, the team would still hope for some of their batters — Tamim Iqbal, Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar and, in particular, Mahmudullah Riyad – to spend time at the crease.
While the likes of Tamim, Liton, Tanzid Hasan and Soumya will likely slot into the top-order again, the need of the hour would be to assess how Mahmudullah and Mahedi Hasan contribute, with those two possibly vying for similar roles at the showpiece event.
In the series opener, Bangladesh picked two seamers alongside spinner Nasum Ahmed while Mahmudullah, Mahedi and Soumya filled in as options for a 20-over slot.
Asked about the bowling options, given just four specialist bowlers which also includes Mahedi, Bangladesh assistant coach Nic Pothas said on Thursday: “The squad we have now, we were always going to pick a team that’s going to win the game in front of us.
“For that particular pitch [in the first ODI], we felt that was the best makeup for the side… We never know how the game might have turned out but it went pretty well.
“The next pitch may be different in which case there might be a different makeup of the team.”
Mahmudullah being able to contribute with the ball would help his case. He bowled four overs for 21 runs and kept the away side relatively quiet, except for the 10 runs that were picked off him in his last over.
The Tigers, however, will relatively be in a comfort zone in terms of their bowling, perhaps wanting to fit the last piece of the puzzle in terms of sixth bowling option. Nasum Ahmed’s performances in the first ODI, too, would be a positive in terms of finding the right options in both bowling and lower-order batting areas.
The pitch, given the conditions, would not provide batters the right opportunity to flourish; although the visitors set a good example on Thursday after Will Young and Henry Nicholls produced a 97-run stand, showing the need for perseverance and being set on such wickets.
New Zealand skipper Lockie Fergusson was not sure whether the batting conditions would help, but felt facing spinning tracks was a positive before the World Cup. The Tigers may have to focus on something similar as well.
“The conditions here might be different than in India, but certainly playing on spinning tracks is always helpful. But yeah, from our point of view, we’re just taking those learnings and focusing on this series,” Fergusson said after the first ODI.
