The Super Eight phase of the 2024 T20 World Cup will resume on Friday morning with Australia taking on Bangladesh at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua and Barbuda.
Australia came through the group stage of the competition with a perfect record and won Group B, while Bangladesh defied the odds to edge Sri Lanka to a qualification spot in Group D.
Match preview
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Australia's dream of becoming the first side in history to hold the title in all three formats of the game simultaneously is still alive, as they emerged from the group stages as one of only three teams to have played and won all four of their scheduled fixtures.
Given the dominant fashion that they dispatched the associate nations and at no point looked likely to lose to England, there is a case to be made that they were the pick of the teams in the first round, which has also seen them shorten in price significantly, closing the gap to current tournament favourites India.
However, Mitchell Marsh's side are now set to encounter a very tricky situation, having been drawn into Group A, which is made up of three Asian teams, India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, which suggests that they are likely to face a trial by spin over this phase of the competition.
Notably, Marsh seems to have already taken this into consideration, as we saw him alter his bowling plans in their last group-stage match against Scotland, where he played all three of his spinners and allowed them their full four-over quotas, while Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were given a rest.
While the Aussies will already have one eye on their blockbuster matchup against India next week, they will know that they cannot overlook Bangladesh, having suffered a 4-1 defeat to the Tigers in their last five-match series at the end of 2021.
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Meanwhile, Bangladesh got their T20 World Cup campaign started on a high note, securing an opening-match victory against Sri Lanka with a successful chase of 125 in 19 overs, led by Towhid Hridoy's explosive 40 runs off 20 balls.
The Tigers' only setback in the first round came against South Africa in game two, where they narrowly lost by four runs in a closely contested game that they might feel slipped through their fingers.
In their final group-stage fixture, Bangladesh overcame Nepal with a 21-run victory, thanks to a career-best four-wicket haul by Tanzim Hasan Sakib that helped earn their place in the Super Eights, aiming for their first ICC Trophy.
Sakib is now one of four bowlers currently tied for second place in the leading wicket-taker standings with nine wickets during the first round of the competition, three behind outright leader Fazalhaq Farooqi of Afghanistan.
Bangladesh have competed in all nine editions of the T20 World Cup and possess an all-time record of 12 wins, 29 losses and one no-result in 42 games. This is only the second time they have reached the Super Eight phase in the 12-team format of the competition.
Team News
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In his debut T20 World Cup match, left-arm spinner Ashton Agar was given the new ball against Scotland and delivered a spell of 4-0-39-1. It will be interesting to see if Marsh maintains the same tactic or reverts to his pacemen from the start.
Earlier this week, it was announced that all-rounder Marcus Stoinis had ascended to the number one position in the ICC Men's T20I all-rounder rankings, thanks to his exceptional performance in this competition.
In the latest ICC rankings, Stoinis leads with a rating of 231, followed by Sri Lanka captain Wanindu Hasaranga in second place and Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan in third.
Speaking of Al Hasan, the Bangladesh veteran has had a fairly quiet tournament, managing only one innings of real significance, when he helped his side to victory over the Netherlands with an excellent unbeaten 64 of 46 balls in game three.
While Tanzim Sakib has gained most of the headlines for his bowling performances in the competition, Mustafizur Rahman has largely gone under the radar but has been just as valuable to the Tigers. The left-armer has taken seven wickets in four games and rounds out the current top-10 leading wicket-takers in the tournament.
Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa
Bangladesh squad: Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Taskin Ahmed, Litton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Tanzid Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan, Towhid Hridoy, Mohammad Mahmudullah, Jaker Ali, Tanvir Islam, Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Tanzim Hasan Sakib
Series so far
Australia
Match One: Australia won by 39 runs
Australia - 164/5 (20)
Oman - 125/9 (20)
Match Two: Australia won by 36 runs
Australia - 201/7 (20)
England - 165/6 (20)
Match Three: Australia won by 9 wickets
Namibia - 72 (17)
Australia - 74/1 (5.4)
Match Four: Australia won by 5 wickets
Scotland - 180/5 (20)
Australia - 186/5 (19.4)
Bangladesh
Match One: Bangladesh won by 2 wickets
Sri Lanka - 124/9 (20)
Bangladesh - 125/8 (19)
Match Two: Bangladesh lost by 2 wickets
South Africa - 113/6 (20)
Bangladesh - 109/7 (20)
Match Three - Bangladesh won by 25 runs
Bangladesh - 159/5 (20)
Netherlands - 134/8 (20)
Match Four: Bangladesh won by 21 runs
Bangladesh - 106 (19.3)
Nepal - 85 (19.2)
We say: Australia to win
While Bangladesh have done very well to this point, they have not faced any side that has looked as good as Australia in this tournament. The Baggy Greens have barely broken a sweat so far and we feel they will win this match fairly comfortably.
Devesh Jaganath
