DHAKA: Visiting Zimbabwe is set to face confident Bangladesh in the first One-Day International (ODI) at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in the city on Saturday.
The limited-overs day-night match will start at 1:00am (local time).
The hosts go into the series full of confidence having already registered three back-to-back series win against Pakistan, India and then against South Africa this year.
‘We want to win each match against Zimbabwe, we have that confidence,’ said Tigers captain (ODI and T20) Mashrafe Bin Mortaza at a pre-match press conference on Friday.
‘The first game of any series is important. Confidence comes automatically if a team wins the first match. We must go into the match to win tomorrow,’ he added.
Tigers have carried their form on to well since the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, where they reached the knockout stage for the very first time in their history.
Moreover, Bangladesh have won eight out of the 14 bilateral series against Zimbabwe since 2001.
On the other hand, Zimbabwe recently lost a five-match ODI series 2-3 and will look to quickly recover from that by registering a win in the first ODI.
However, the visitors will go into the series with a bit of confidence as they beat BCB XI in the warm-up match comprehensively by a margin of seven wickets.
Needing 278 to win, Zimbabwe chased down the score with seven wickets and balls to spare. Craig Ervine, Sean Williams and Elton Chigumbura scored half-centuries to help Zimbabwe win.
Anamul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim scored an unbeaten 81 to help Bangladesh to a competitive score.
Zimbabwe will look to turn their fortunes around in the series beginning with this match. Bangladesh will want to carry on their winning streak in this series as well.
Bangladesh could stick to their tendency of using eight batsmen but Mashrafe's lack of fitness and the absence of Soumya Sarkar means they need a bit of cover in the pace bowling front.
Bangladesh will be without Soumya Sarkar, who has been ruled out due to injury. Al-Amin Hossain could be included if that's how the management feels, replacing either Liton Das or Imrul Kayes.
Bangladesh: (probable) 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Imrul Kayes, 3 Liton Das, 4 Mahmudullah, 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 7 Sabbir Rahman, 8 Nasir Hossain, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), 10 Arafat Sunny, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
Zimbabwe (probable): 1 Chamu Chibhabha, 2 Richmond Mutumbami (wk), 3 Craig Ervine, 4 Sean Williams, 5 Regis Chakabva, 6 Sikandar Raza, 7 Elton Chigumbura (capt), 8 Tendai Chisoro, 9 Luke Jongwe, 10 Graeme Cremer, 11 Tinashe Panyangara
BDST: 0922 HRS, NOV 07, 2015
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