Bangladesh won the toss and opted to field first in the first game of the three-match T20 International series against England at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Thursday (Mar 9). 

Bangladesh though had already played 144 matches in this format since 2006, they had faced off England just once, that too in 2021 T20 World Cup, which the Tigers lost by 8 wickets.

England started the tour well with a 2-1 win in three-match ODI series, handing the hosts their first ever series defeat in this format since 2016. They were in fact the last visitor to win a series here.

A series victory in T20 format could quell Bangladesh’s pain of losing the ODI series but team’s head coach Chandika Hathurusingha made it clear their main focus would be to build a strong team for the 2024 T20 World Cup in West Indies and USA.

Bangladesh: 1 Rony Talukdar, 2 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 3 Litton Das, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 5 Towhid Hridoy, 6 Afif Hossain, 7 Shamim Hossain, 8 Taskin Ahmed, 9, Nasum Ahmed, 10 Hasan Mahmud, 11 Mustafizur Rahman

England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Ben Duckett, 5 Moeen Ali, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Mark Wood

BDST: 1502 HRS, MAR 09, 2023

MN/SMS