We are favourites against Ireland.
A team that we have never beaten in major competitions.
Yes, things really are interesting.
Ireland have managed to best us and embarrass us on two separate major occasions.
But, we have whooped them when they came over for a visit at Mirpur.
If the pitches play like they should, the match should not be much of a worry.
But it isn’t any walkover either.
These match is a do or die battle for us.
A minimum of 3 wins are required to progress to the quarter finals.
That means Ireland & Netherlands plus a test playing nation
(WI are probably our best chance).
Hence a loss to Ireland, and this World Cup could end up
being our biggest nightmare.
The conditions are what makes things in our favour more than anything.
A spin friendly pitch with a spin attack like ours, shall make
batting difficult for the Irish.
Our batting has fired quite well, but our spinners need to wake up.
The question on everyone’s minds is what will Shakib do if he does win the toss again?
He has admitted that dew is not a major factor as he had previously thought.
Last 5 matches,
from most recent to least recent
Bangladesh: LWWWL
Ireland: WLLWL
Teams
Bangladesh (probable):
1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Imrul Kayes, 3 Junaid Siddique, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk),
5 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 6 Raqibul Hasan, 7 Mohammad Ashraful,
8 Mahmudullah, 9 Naeem Islam/Suhrawadi Shuvo,
10 Abdur Razzak, 11 Rubel Hossain.
Ireland (probable):
1 William Porterfield (capt), 2 Paul Stirling, 3 Andre Botha, 4 Ed Joyce,
5 Niall O’Brien (wk), 6 Kevin O’Brien, 7 Andrew White, 8 John Mooney,
9 Trent Johnston, 10 Boyd Rankin, 11 George Dockrell/Albert van der Merwe.