Bangladesh national cricket team were whitewashed in the recently concluded one day international series to New Zealand. Now ahead of their first of their three-match T20 series against the Blackcaps on Sunday, the Tigers face a daunting task as they never beaten their counterpart in the T20 format.
The 3-match T20I series will get underway. The tigers will take on the hosts New Zealand in their first encounter at Seddon Park in Hamilton at 7:00 am on Sunday. Bangladesh now can't afford to look back at the past and they should now start afresh.
If we look back to shorter version, the results are not a joyous one. Tigers played seven matches against the Kiwis and lost all the encounters.
Bangladesh played first T-20 match against New Zealand on February 3, 2010 at Hamilton Ground. Tigers scored only 78 runs from 17.3 overs in that outing. New Zealand managed 79 runs of 8.2 overs without losing any wicket.
The last proceeding of these two teams was held at Mount Maunganui in New Zealand on January 8, 2017, where the Tigers were beaten by 27 runs. It means team Bangladesh saw no success against the Blackcaps in the shorter version of the game.
Now a stern task lies ahead of Mahmudullah Riyad & co side as they look to come out from that losing streak. In the past, Tigers’ performance against the Kiwis were frustrating to say the least, as they struggled in all three departments of the game.
Although Bangladesh will kick start their ICC T20 World Cup preparations with this fixture, they will be without Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan. The visitors still have some talented players and on their day they can beat any team in the shorter version.
Although they are the underdogs heading into today's (Sunday) outing, Tigers want to overcome their debacle in the ODI series with an improved performance at Seddon Park. With the likes of Soumya Sarkar and Najmul Hossain Shanto itching to stamp their authority, we should be in for a cracking opening encounter between New Zealand and Bangladesh in the T20Is.
The Tigers played 96 matches in T-20 so far and won 32, lost 62, their success is 34. 04 per cent.
