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Bangladesh keen to play against Australia

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2nd August, 2021
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Bangladesh will try to take advantage of Australia’s weakened side in the T20 that begins in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Bangladesh is keen to make its first bilateral Twenty20 series against Australia a memorable one.

The series of five matches in seven days begins on Tuesday in Dhaka, and Bangladesh is high on confidence after sweeping Zimbabwe in their test, one-day international and T20 series last month.

“T20 is such a game where you can defeat anyone on a particular day, it hardly matters who is top-ranked or not,” Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah said. “It’s a great opportunity for us as a team and other players to show our standard. I believe that we are a balanced side in our home and will try to prove it.”

The teams haven’t met in T20 since 2016 and are preparing for the Twenty20 World Cup in October.

But most of the first-choice Australia players have skipped the West Indies and Bangladesh tour, and regular captain Aaron Finch has gone home injured, and Bangladesh is also missing key players such as Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Liton Das.

Tamim is injured, Liton is out of the series because of a family emergency, and Mushfiqur has been forced to miss the series due to Australia’s stringent bio-bubble rules.

Cricket Australia demanded there be no access from outside the bio-bubbles, and Mushfiqur had to leave Zimbabwe early – and the bio-secure bubble – to be with his ailing parents.

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Bangladesh coach Russell Domingo was disappointed with Australia’s stance.

“I can’t understand the stringent rules Australia placed on Mushfiq out of the bubble,” Domingo said.

“I think ten days (quarantine) would have surely been enough. Very disappointing the way they went about it. No Mushfiqur is surely a loss for us but we have got a big squad and some quality players to replace him.”

Domingo admitted they will try to take the advantage of Australia’s inexperience.

“They are missing a couple of key players, and they’ve obviously got some players here who are trying to get into the World Cup squad, so there will be added pressure on those players to perform,” he said. “We will make sure to take advantage to that.”

Australia has never lost a T20 against Bangladesh in four encounters, all of which were one-off meetings at World Cups.

Australia recently lost a five-match T20 series against West Indies 4-1.

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© AAP

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