***Official*** Bangladesh in England

Before the long awaited Ashes series starts their is a very importent series for Bangladesh, when they play Englang in two tests. Bangladesh named their sqaud yesterday, pretty predictable one, except a couple of new faces:
- Habibul Bashar (c) , Khaled Mashud (wk), Mushfiqur Rahim - Rookie (wk), Mohammad Ashraful , Javed Omar, Rajin Saleh, Nafis Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Shahriar Nafees - Rookie, Mohammad Rafique, Enamul Haque jnr, Mashrafe Mortaza,Tapash Baisya, Anwar Hossain Monir, Talha Jubair, Shahadat Hossain - Rookie

I guess Bangladesh's objectives for this series are just to be competitive and continue their improvements from Zimbabwe and India. The realistic goal for them to is to not lose by an innings, last 5 days and to achieve all follow-on targets. It will be hard for Bangladesh as they are coming up aganist a very strong England team.

I like bangladesh. I am also fond of kenya. These are two excellent upcomming teams. Also lets not forget hong kong. ive seen them upclose and personal. very determined and something to watchout for in the future!!!

aliG said:

I like bangladesh. I am also fond of kenya. These are two excellent upcomming teams. Also lets not forget hong kong. ive seen them upclose and personal. very determined and something to watchout for in the future!!!

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Hong kong, they are a long way off, they didn't even make the ICC Trophy Qualifiers. The fact that they played in the Asia Cup and are in the Inter-Contential Cup is more to do with the fact that Oman, Kuwait and others aren't allowed to take part in the qualifiers, not the fact that they are that good.

aliG said:

I like bangladesh. I am also fond of kenya. These are two excellent upcomming teams. Also lets not forget hong kong. ive seen them upclose and personal. very determined and something to watchout for in the future!!!

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I'd not even call them excellent up-and-coming domestic teams, let alone international teams.

I wouldn't call Kenya "upcoming". They're definately in decline. Bangladesh are definately improving, though.

If I could suggest one name to watch it would be Mushfiqur Rahim. I saw him playing for the u19's a couple of weeks ago and am very interested in how his career develops. In the stature of Parthiv Patel but a much better keeper already

FaaipDeOiad said:

I wouldn't call Kenya "upcoming". They're definately in decline. Bangladesh are definately improving, though.

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They only been in decline since their players went on strike for not getting paid. With Tikolo, Otieno, Obuya and Odoyo back i think they will be back to where they were before. If they keep all their players on deck then i expect them to win the Inter-Contenial Cup pretty confortably.

I hope England will be generous to their former Colony and not rout them in a one sided Test !!

I hope English selectors will select some of their Emerging Test Cricketers and thus give them a chance to play International Cricket against the 'deshis and thereby make it an interesting series !!

I'm going to be a traitor and support Bangladesh in this series. England have nothing to prove and it would be great for the development of Bangladesh cricket if they surprised a few people on this tour and showed that England have underestimated them.

COME ON BANGLADESH!!!

i am quite scared of Mortaza, i think he is one to watch.

SpeedKing said:

i am quite scared of Mortaza, i think he is one to watch.

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Yes, his Test average is quite respectable (43 wickets @ 33.76). Better than Flintoff and Anderson. ( Don't hurt me.)

Bangladesh actually have some decent bowlers. Mortaza is pretty good, and Rafique is very handy of course, and with Enamul Haque Jnr coming through, that's a competitive bowling attack. Their problem is the batting, which seems to be on the rise as well if the Indian and Zimbabwean series are worth anything as a guide. Personally I think this Bangladesh side would belt the one of a couple of years ago, and that's all you can ask for really from a new test nation.

I too would like to see them be competitive against England.

Adamc said:

Yes, his Test average is quite respectable (43 wickets @ 33.76). Better than Flintoff and Anderson. ( Don't hurt me.)

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I am so not gonna go there

In fact, i will go there, I am going to leave Anderson out of this coz he has not yet played the 16 tests that Mortaza has played.

But Flintoff, i am not having it. Those 43 wickets @ 33.76 are from 16 matches and from Freddie's last 15 matches, he has taken 57 wickets at 24.80. Not quite McGrath status [70wkts @19] but better than Gillespie [53wkts @26.90] and Kaspa [52wkts @ 26.90] so don't give me your Aussie bait, coz i will take it. From last 15 matches BTW

And I do admit that James Anderson's case is quite indefendable. Although his figures of 35 wkts @ 36.40 from 12 matches are not as of the mark compared to Mortaza's as you implied

They shouldn't be a test team and its a waste of time for them to play against England. They may have one or two good sessions but any little talent they have is just going to waste.

SpeedKing said:

In fact, i will go there, I am going to leave Anderson out of this coz he has not yet played the 16 tests that Mortaza has played.

But Flintoff, i am not having it. Those 43 wickets @ 33.76 are from 16 matches and from Freddie's last 15 matches, he has taken 57 wickets at 24.80. Not quite McGrath status [70 @19] but better than Gillespie [53wkts @26.90] and Gillespie [52wkts @ 26.90] so don't give me your Aussie bait, coz i will take it. From last 15 matches

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Umm... I don't think I was baiting you, it was a lighthearted comment (as evidenced by the ) not meant to be taken seriously. In any case, all I said was that he has a better average than Flintoff and Anderson, which is true. I never claimed he was a better bowler than either. So meh.

Nonetheless I am glad to have contributed to you wasting five minutes of your life looking up those stats.

Dar said:

They shouldn't be a test team and its a waste of time for them to play against England. They may have one or two good sessions but any little talent they have is just going to waste.

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Don't be so harsh. You should be happy that our players are going to have a nice confidence booster just before the Ashes

JASON said:

I hope England will be generous to their former Colony and not rout them in a one sided Test !!

I hope English selectors will select some of their Emerging Test Cricketers and thus give them a chance to play International Cricket against the 'deshis and thereby make it an interesting series !!

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Flintoff aside (and I expect he'd have played if the opposition were stronger), I expect a full strength line-up.

The lack of Flintoff probably means Bell and Pietersen both play, but only 1 of them will still be in the side come the Ashes.

Adamc said:

Umm... I don't think I was baiting you, it was a lighthearted comment (as evidenced by the ) not meant to be taken seriously. In any case, all I said was that he has a better average than Flintoff and Anderson, which is true. I never claimed he was a better bowler than either. So meh.

Nonetheless I am glad to have contributed to you wasting five minutes of your life looking up those stats.

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That's cool. I just got all heated up when i thought you implied that He is better than Flintoff and to a much lesser extent, Anderson.

JASON said:

I hope England will be generous to their former Colony and not rout them in a one sided Test !!

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What test cricket are you talking about? I hope England absolutely disgrace Bangladesh.. Show them how they don't belong in test cricket, and send them back to Bangladesh totally battered and jaded..

Not that it's the players fault or anything, but I cant help but feel the ICC have just turned them into sacrificial lambs..