Bangladesh and Australia face each other for pride in the ICC WT20 in Mirpur today.
Hosts Bangladesh are on a four-match losing streak and the Aussies have lost three games in a row and third was a heavy loss to India on Sunday.
The Mighty Australia started the tournament as one of the favourites on paper while Bangladesh had to qualify for Super 10s.
However, their cricketing fortunes in the ICC World T20 have been embarrassingly similar. At least for Australia. Both teams are yet to win a game in the Super 10.
One of them will win in their dead rubber on Tuesday, when the two sides meet at the Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium. Star opener Shane Watson tried hard to express how much it means to the Aussies to win although most of the players would be focusing on the flight back home after an exhausting summer. “We have to be motivated. For me, personally, I don't like losing. As a team too, we don’t like losing,” he stressed. Watson was one of the heroes for Australia in the last edition of this event in Sri Lanka, collecting four man of the match awards and the man of the tournament prize. This time though his returns have been poor. “I don't like my performance in this tournament. I haven’t got five runs (he’s scored 7). I’ve got more wickets (2) than runs. I know personally I have got a lot to prove and I know everyone else will be feeling exactly the same." Watson admitted that the season has been long, what with back-to-back Ashes, ODI series and Test series vs South Africa, but said that is no excuse for the team to have played the way they did. “Yes, it’s been a long summer, almost a never-ending summer. But it certainly doesn't mean that we should ever take the foot off the pedal. Playing cricket for your country in a World Cup, in whatever format, is a huge honour. There are a lot of people with damaged pride especially after the loss to India. We'll be ready to go to try and finish the tournament how we really should've started it,” Watson said. For Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim, Tuesday presents yet another chance for his team to fight for the cricket-crazy fans. "The expectations are low from us in T20. We are a team capable of at least putting up a fight. We need to enjoy the challenge of playing against big teams,” he said ahead of the game against Australia.
Possible squads for today's game
Bangladesh
Mushfiqur Rahim*, Abdur Razzak, Al-Amin Hossain, Anamul Haque, Farhad Reza, Mahmudullah, Mominul Haque, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shamsur Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Sohag Gazi, Tamim Iqbal, Taskin Ahmed, Ziaur Rahman
Australia
GJ Bailey*, DE Bollinger, DT Christian, NM Coulter-Nile, JP Faulkner, AJ Flinch, BJ Haddin, BJ Hodge, GB Hogg, GJ Maxwell, JM Muirhead, MA Starc, DA Warner, SR Watson, CL White
