Young Bangladesh look to stop strong Pakistan

Overview

Bangladesh v Pakistan, 1st T20I
Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur
19 November, 4 PM local time

After a decent first round performance to end second in Group A, Bangladesh had a poor Super 12 stage in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021. They failed to win a single game and were plagued with plenty of batting and bowling issues, including the loss of Shakib Al Hasan, who was ruled out with an injury in the middle of the tournament.

However, Bangladesh are a different beast altogether at home. They defeated Australia and New Zealand before the T20 World Cup and will be hoping to get back to their winning ways in familiar conditions. But the squad is young. They have dropped the veteran Mushfiqur Rahim and will also be without the services of Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das and Rubel Hossain. With Shakib still recovering, they have opted for younger faces.

Pakistan, on the other hand, cannot be taken lightly. They were excellent throughout the T20 World Cup, reaching the semi-finals unbeaten, where they lost to eventual champions Australia. They have a favourable record in the format against the hosts, winning 10 out of the 12 T20Is they have played together.

They are a team in form and with a full-strength side at their disposal, a youngish Bangladesh side will have to play out of their skins to make a difference.

Remember the last time:

The last time Bangladesh and Pakistan met is T20Is was nearly two years ago in January 2020 when Bangladesh toured Pakistan for a three-match T20I series. Despite the first match getting abandoned, Pakistan won the series 2-0 with strong bowling performances. In both T20Is, Bangladesh were restricted to below 145 totals, which Pakistan managed to chase without too many hiccups.

What they said:

Babar Azam (Pakistan captain): "The project is to check the bench strength. We have to try them out and play with a different combination. We have three T20Is against Bangladesh followed by three matches against West Indies so we will try to play with a different combination and a different approach. We have been carrying great momentum from the T20 World Cup so the aim is to continue that and play positive cricket."