Bangladesh return to the ICC Champions Trophy for the first time since 2006 and they will be out to display the improvement in this format of the game which has got them back into the tournament. A powerful batting line up and good crop of young bowlers have seen them overtake the likes of the West Indies and Pakistan in the ODI rankings and a solid run here will see them prove their worth.
Stats
Best Finish: Group Stage 2002 & 2004
Captain: Mashrafe Mortaza
Key Players: Tamim Iqbal & Mustafizur Rahman
Tournament Odds: 50/1 General
Group A Odds: 22/1 Paddy Power/Betfair
Fixtures
Thurs June 1: vs England at The Oval
Mon June 5: vs Australia at The Oval (day/night)
Fri June 9: vs New Zealand at Cardiff
Squad
Mashrafe Mortaza (c), Imrul Kayes, Mahmudullah, Mehedi Hasan, Mosaddek Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Sunzamul Islam, Tamim Iqbal, Taskin Ahmed
Strengths
This is a strong looking Bangladesh batting line up with some world class talents such as Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and Sabbir Rahman in it not to mention a couple of others with decent records at ODI level. We’ve seen them pile on runs in one of the warm up matches and high scores can be expected from Bangladesh if they can get off to decent starts.
Weakness
In these conditions the weakness is definitely going to be the bowling attack. Although they have some talented seamers they can often go around the park and the slowing up process that the spinners perform in Asian conditions is unlikely to be as effective here. It is vital their main seamers step up and are counted in these conditions.
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Betting
I’m going to leave the bowling alone for Bangladesh in this tournament for the simple reason that I’m not convinced they are going to pick up that many wickets so there could be a freak winner in that market.
I think the batting might go a little more to plan and if I knew for sure that Mahmudullah would bat in the top four in this side then I might well have been interested in him at a big price but in the end I’ve gone with the obvious pick in Tamim Iqbal. He is one of the most experienced batsmen in this Bangladesh side and has tasted English conditions on a number of occasions. He blasted 100 in a warm up match last week so he is in good form and at 11/4 looks the stand out bet in this market.
Tips
WON – Back T.Iqbal Top Bangladesh Tournament Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 3.75 with Skybet
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