AUSTRALIA FOCUS
Australia would have been disappointed with their performance against New Zealand in their opening match at the ICC Champions Trophy as both their bowling and batting didn’t seem to be at their best.
The match was eventually abandoned due to rain and the Aussies will consider themselves a little fortunate to have come out from the game with one point.
Josh Hazlewood’s bowling was one of the few bright spots for Steve Smith’s side as the right-arm pacer picked up career-best ODI bowling figures of 6-52.
Speaking after the match, Smith had called the bowling display as one of the worst that Australia had put on for a very long time after they conceded 291 before bowling out the Blackcaps in 45 overs.
“I thought it was probably one of the worst bowling displays that we’ve put on for a very long time. We bowled both sides of the wicket. We gave them (New Zealand) a lot of freebies,” the Australian skipper said.
BANGLADESH FOCUS
Having lost their first match of the tournament against England, Bangladesh cannot afford a loss here as a defeat will end their chances of qualifying for the semi-finals.
The Tigers put on a good batting display on Thursday but weren’t able to follow up with the ball as England chased down a target of 306 with ease.
That might tempt Mashrafe Mortaza and co. to give a boost to their bowling resources by including an extra bowler in this match.
Tamim Iqbal (who scored a century) and Mushfiqur Rahim’s performances with the bat were encouraging signs for Bangladesh in the competition’s opener.
DATE, TIME, VENUE INFO
Date: Monday – June 5, 2017
Time: 16:30 GST, 13:30 local, 12:30 GMT, 18:00 IST, 17:30 PKT
Venue: Kennington Oval, London
WHERE TO WATCH, LIVE STREAMING INFO
TV: UAE – OSN Sports Cricket HD
Full coverage on Sport360.com.
CONFIRMED AUSTRALIA XI: Warner, Finch, Smith (c), Head, Henriques, Maxwell, Wade (wk), Starc, Cummins, Zampa, Hazlewood.
CONFIRMED BANGLADESH XI: Tamim, Sarkar, Kayes, Mushfiqur (wk), Shakib, Sabbir, Mahmudullah, Mehedi, Mortaza (c), Mustafizur, Rubel.
SPORT360 MATCH PREDICTION: Second in the ICC ODI rankings, Australia go into the match as huge favourites. Having said that, you can’t put anything past this Bangladesh team who have grown from strength to strength in the last few years.