Sports Reporter :
Favourites Bangladesh Cricket team will take on Scotland in their first Group-B qualifiers match of the ICC T20 World Cup at the Amerat Stadium in Oman today. The match will start at 8.00pm (BST). State-owned television channel BTV and private satellite
channel GTV and private satellite sports channel T Sports will telecast the match live from the arena.
Though the ICC T20 World Cup was scheduled to be held in India but due to coronavirus pandemic the final round of the ICC T20 World Cup will be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Besides, the qualifiers of the World Cup will take place in Oman. But the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will arrange the cricket extravaganza.
Bangladesh, Scotland, Oman, Papua New Guinea have been placed in Group-B, while Sri Lanka, Ireland, Namibia, Netherlands have been placed in Group-A. Top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super Twelve phase. West Indies, England, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, South Africa and Afghanistan will directly play in the final round (Super Twelve).
The qualifier matches of the Group-A will take place in the UAE.
Meanwhile, Oman will face Papua New Guinea in the day’s other match at the same venue on the same day. The match will begin at 4.00pm (BST).
Bangladesh have a good news that ‘Cutter Boy’ Mustafizur Rahman and ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan joined the Bangladesh squad after finishing their Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign. Besides, Bangladesh are now in an upbeat mood as they defeated Zimbabwe by 2-1 in their Twenty20International (T20I) series in Zimbabwe in this year. Bangladesh outplayed Australia by 4-1 in the recently concluded T20I series. Mahmudullah Co. beat New Zealand by 3-2 in their last full-fledged T20I series.
Though Bangladesh tasted two defeats against Sri Lanka and Ireland in their warm-up matches recently, but they played the warm-up matches without their key players Mahmudullah Riyad, Shakib Al Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman.
On the other hand, players of Scotland are a good mood as they beat Namibia and Netherlands in their warm-up matches.
Captain of Bangladesh T20 team Mahmudullah Riyad said, ” We know our capability. We shall try to play hard cricket. Though we have no power-based hitter but we have skilled-based hitter. If our batters can play with their skilled-based hit, I hope we can earn a good result.”
On the other hand, Coach of Scotland Shane Burger said, ” I don’t think about the favourites. We are now in a good rhythm after beating Namibia and Netherlands in warm-up matches. We are now in a good shape. We played good cricket during the month.”
Bangladesh squad: Mahmudullah Riyad (Captain), Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das, Mohammad Naim, Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Shamim Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Mohammad Saifuddin, Shoriful Islam, Mahedi Hasan, Rubel Hossain and Nasum Ahmed.
