Bangladesh women’s cricket team will start their 10-nation ICC Women’s World Twenty20 campaign taking on host India in the inaugural match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore today (Tuesday).
The match will kick-off 4 pm (Bangladesh Standard time). New Zealand women’s will play Sri Lankan women’s in the other opening day’s fixture at 8pm (BST) at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi.
Bangladesh put in five-team Group of the ICC Women’s World T20 alongwith the 2009 champions England, three times semi-finalist West Indies and two sub-continental rivals of world cricket India and Pakistan while group team comprises Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka , New Zealand and Ireland.
The top two teams from each of the group will qualify for the knockout stage of the tournament.
Earlier, Bangladesh women’s played seven T20 matches against India and lost in all the seven occasions.
In 2014, Bangladesh Women featured in the ICC Women’s World T20 as the home side.
But this time, however, they had to qualify for the event, and the Jahanara Alam’s girls cruised through the draw in the ICC Women’s World T20 Qualifier in Thailand last year to make it to the final of the tournament and ensured qualification for India.
Its young spinners will be keen to make a splash on the biggest stage. Rumana Ahmed, the spin-bowling all-rounder who was adjudged Player of the Tournament in the qualifier, is backed by Fahima Khatun and Khadija Tul Kubra.
The batting side has been shored up by Sharmin Akhter, Ayasha Rahman and Fargana Hoque, while Jahanara Alam, with her pace bowling, has been leading from the front and Nigar Sultana Joty is an energetic presence behind the wickets.
In two warm-up matches ahead of the world Twenty20 in Bangalore last week, Bangladesh outplayed Ireland by eight wickets with 45 balls remaining after losing the first match to Sri Lanka by five wickets.
On the other hand, India Women have retained the squad that won a historic T20I series against Australia recently for the Women’s World Twenty20.
In last January, the Indian team, lead by Mithali Raj, had achieved their first bilateral series win over Australia Women in any format, claiming the three-match series 2-1 including a record chase of 141, their highest ever in a T20 international in the first match of the series in Adelaide.
India has failed to make the semifinal in the past two editions, but, riding high on confidence, will expect nothing less this time.
Bangladesh Squad: Jahanara Alam (capt), Ayasha Rahman, Fahima Khatun, Fargana Hoque, Salma Khatum, Khadija Tul Khubra, Lata Mondal, Nahida Akter, Nigar Sultana (wk), Panna Ghosh, Ritu Moni, Rumana Ahmed, Sanjida Islam, Shaila Sharmin and Sharmin Akhter.
India Squad: Mithali Raj (capt), Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Goswami, Thirush Kamini, Harmanpreet Kaur, Veda Krishnamurthy, Smriti Mandhana, Niranjana Nagarajan, Shikha Pandey, Anuja Patil, Deepti Sharma, VR Vanitha, Sushma Verma, and Poonam Yadav.
