BanglaCricket Article

Bangladesh will be meeting England only for the second time in One Day Internationals. And unlike the last time, this time it won't be easy for the younger generation of Bangladeshi players to show the same type of attacking batting with the bat.

Since that time, Bangladesh have earned the Test Status and have flooded the National Team with vastly younger players. Two of the regular members of the Bangladesh side will not be able to play due to injury, but we all hope that the replacement player for Mohammad Rafique can at least show something with either the bat or the ball or both.

Similar to the test series, the one day series will also see the domination of England fast bowlers on Bangladesh batsman. And those who can survive the initial English pace attack will enjoy the rest of the day.

However, the same cannot be said about the bowlers. The bowlers will face a tremendous challenge of keeping the run-rates down from the beginning to the end. And as the history suggests, Bangladesh bowling is not such a good one against England batting.

It will be a challenge for the Bangaldeshi batsman to surpass the top individual score of Javed Omar's 63 not out in the first and the only ODI played between these two teams.

If the England batsman can get on top of the bowlers right from the start like they did against the Bangladesh Board President's XI, then a total of over 300 is very likely. So it will be a challenge for the bowlers to stop them from scoring quickly. It is a certainty that the captain will miss Mohammad Rafique. He is not only a good line and length bowler, but also a very experienced player.

However, it is time to groop a second spinner in the Bangladesh side who can assist Mohammad Rafique. And what better way to do that in the absence of an injured Rafique?

There is the possibility of two debutantes playing in the first eleven of the first One Day match. Either Moniruzzaman or Nafis Iqbal will open the innings with Hannan Sarkar. And then either virtually unknown Jamal Babu or Manzarul Islam Rana will replace the injured Mohammad Rafique. Or it could be that three new players might make their debut tomorrow for Bangladesh in the first ODI match.

It will be interesting to see how the middle order performs after their poor performance on the same ground during the second test match. The four main batsman of the middle order - Habibul Bashar, Rajin Saleh, Alok Kapali and Mushfiqur Rahman will play in the one day series as they did in the test series. At the moment these four players do not seem to be too dependable like they seemed to be during Bangladesh's tour of Pakistan, especially after the second Chittagong test match against England.

Let us just wait and see what happens.