Stakes are high in many aspects for Bangladesh as the Tigers face New Zealand in the first game of the three-match One Day International series in Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium Thursday.
With the ODI World Cup knocking at the door and the warm-up games just over a week away, every participating team are busy putting the last-minute touches to their preparation for the upcoming showpiece global cricketing event.
Although Bangladesh rested key personnel for this series in regular captain Shakib al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim, among others, and the Kiwis sent a depleted team, the significance of this series is high, particularly for some individual players.
Every participating nation have submitted a preliminary 15-man squad to the International Cricket Council for the World Cup but they can make changes to their roster until September 28, which means teams still have a chance to do last-minute fine-tuning.
For Bangladesh, a few spots in the final squad for the World Cup are still up for grabs and thus the intensity of the series has increased for the hosts.
The selectors and Tigers think tank will therefore look closely at individual performances during this series.
Former ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal has been declared fit to play and returned to the national fold after his retirement saga.
Tamim getting back to full fitness and form is crucial for Bangladesh as the experienced left-hander is on the verge of playing his fifth ODI World Cup.
Stand-in skipper Liton Das has also struggled for runs in white-ball cricket in recent months so this three-match series is a good chance for him to get some runs under his belt before the World Cup.
All eyes will be on Mahmudullah though as the veteran middle-order batsman has been recalled to the ODI side after management decided to rest him following the home series against England in March this year.
The inclusion of Mahmudullah was somewhat a public demand in recent weeks and the way he was rested and excluded from the team was a much-discussed topic among fans in the country’s cricket arena.
The senior right-hander now has a very good opportunity to stake a claim for a spot in the final 15-man squad as Bangladesh still need a batsman who can bat at the lower middle-order.
But for that to happen, Mahmudullah needs to score runs in this series, and obviously at a healthy strike rate which the Tigers team management is looking for.
Players like Soumya Sarkar, Mahedi Hasan and Tanzim Hasan Sakib will be under the radar as well as the Tigers are still searching the best possible option for a pace-bowling all-rounder or fifth pacer and a spin-bowling all-rounder for the 15-man party.
But rain may play spoilsport in Thursday's game as weather forecast shows thundershowers during the day so the match could be reduced to a curtail-over game in the end.
The Black Caps last visited these shores for an ODI series in 2013 and got whitewashed in the three-match series.
The Kiwis though played against the Tigers at their backyard in 2021 in a five-match Twenty20 international series just before the T20 World Cup where they lost by 3-2 margin.
