Australia begin a very rare tour of Bangladesh on Tuesday when the two nations meet in the first of what will hopefully be five T20 internationals over the space of the next week or so. I say hopefully because we are in Covid times but that is the plan.
As well as this being a pretty big series for Bangladesh given that they still don’t play the elite sides as often as they should do, this series offers up the chance for both teams to continue their preparation for the World T20 which is beginning to loom on the horizon.
Bangladesh
When you consider that they don’t play the big nations very often, there is always a sense of Bangladesh needing to feel their opponents out before we know where they are against them. That might well be the case here too but it should help them that this is a depleted Australia side. Another thing that will help is that they come into this series having been active recently. They have just returned from a tour of Zimbabwe.
While the opposition there wasn’t as strong as what they face here, it was a good test and provides some continuity in their cricket. They will feel in their home conditions that they have the tools to be competitive here. If they are going to be competitive and win matches you sense they’ll have to bat well. We know Australia aren’t comfortable batting in these lower and slower conditions but that won’t mean much if Bangladesh aren’t putting strong totals on the board.
Australia
Bangladesh aren’t the only ones who have been active in recent times. Australia head to Bangladesh off the back of a limited overs tour of the Caribbean, where they won’t need to be reminded of the fact they got trounced in the T20 matches. It should be said that they were playing the world champions in that format and doing so with a largely second string side. They come up against nothing like as good a team here, on paper at least.
The one thing Australia need to do in this series both to have a chance of winning it but also for confidence going into the World T20 is show they can play spin. Even if they still lose the odd wicket to it if they show they are getting to grips with it then it might make teams stand up. The other thing they need to do is make sure they keep the intensity on the opposition throughout the 20 overs with the ball, something they didn’t always do against West Indies.
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Team News
Bangladesh are missing a number of key players for this match with Tamim Iqbal, Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mustafizur Rahman all out either through injury or Covid protocols or quarantining. That makes Shakib-al-Hasan a huge player for the Tigers.
Australia are using the same squad that they used for the T20 matches in the Caribbean minus Aaron Finch and Riley Meredith who picked up injuries out there. Nathan Ellis has been upgraded from the reserve squad to the full one and Matthew Wade captains the side in Finch’s absence.
Betting
I’ll ease my way into the series but the longer it goes on the more I’ll be beginning to side with Bangladesh I think. For now though I’ll just assess how both teams shape up and how they perform in these conditions before I open the betting play book on the series. I’ll go with one in this match because I think with the way Australia bat against spin we’re looking at a low scoring series and I fancy that will be reflected really early on here.
The run line for this match is up at 319.5 which when you think how Australia do struggle against spin it isn’t unreasonable to think they’ll struggle to get up to 160. Bangladesh are without three of their first choice top order batsmen here so they might also find 160 a score that is beyond them. I get the feeling this is one of those matches where even if a team gets going batting first and goes way beyond 160, the weaknesses in the other will be exposed and the under still lands through a very low scoring second innings. However the game plays out, this line looks too high for these sets of XIs.
Tips
Back Under 319.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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