Bangladesh will lock horns with Ireland in the 4th Match of Group-A at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala on Friday. Ireland are low on confidence after suffering an upset against Oman in their first match of the Super-10 qualifiers whereas Bangladesh registered a clinical victory against the Netherlands in their previous match.

Bangladesh has emerged as a new Super-Power in the shorter formats of the game after the 2015 World Cup. All their success since the past year is due to a combination of experienced players and young guns in the squad. Mashrafe Mortaza has been sensational in leading Bangladesh since World Cup 2015 and is arguably the most successful Captain for Bangladesh till now. Equally important has been the contributions of experienced campaigners Shakib-Al-Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim,Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah Riyad. And all that experience has been coupled with some fierce energy of the young guns like Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Taskin Ahmed and Al-Amin Hossain making the perfect recipe for a success story.

Bangladesh failed to click together as a batting unit in their previous encounter against Netherlands. However, Tamim Iqbal’s determined innings of 83*(57) ensured that Bangladesh could register a total in excess of 150 that looked below par on that pitch. But Bangladesh pulled things back with their bowling as Netherlands fell short of the target by runs. Shakib-Al-Hasan and Al-Amin Hossain were the most impressive of the bowlers picking up a couple of wickets each. Ireland on the other hand looked like the most promising of all the associate nations since their victory over England in World Cup 2011. Kevin O’Brien played a blinder of an innings scoring the fastest world cup century at that time. They had even beat Pakistan in 2007 World Cup to knock them out of the tournament. However, due to unknown reasons they have not been able to raise their levels like Afghanistan which has become the strongest of all associate nations in a short span of time. The side boasts of plenty of experience as many of its players like William Potterfield, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Boyd Rankin, etc. have all played county cricket for a long time. But still they have not been able to use that experience on the big stage to progress further.

Ireland were firm favourites in their Last encounter against Oman. However, Oman snatched out a surprise win in the last over due to a horrible last over from Sorensen. They were not at their best for the whole game as all the players looked out of sorts. First they could not deliver with the bat managing a mere total of 150 odd runs. But still that was enough to restrict Oman. But Ireland took it too easy and slipped on a banana skin to hand Oman a victory.

The Key players for Bangladesh in this game will be the experienced players like Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah Riyad and Mashrafe Mortaza. They all have to be at their best as Ireland will be giving their 100% to win this match. For Ireland, much will depend on their skipper Porterfield as he has to bat throughout the innings to ensure that Ireland does not fall short of partnerships. The role of the O’Brien Brothers will be equally important. And their bowling, which has been their weak link, has to click together as a unit.

Probable Line Ups:-

Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Shakib-Al-Hasan, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mushfiqur Rahim(wk), Nasir Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza(C), Arafat Sunny/Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Al-Amin Hossain

Ireland: William Porterfield(C), Paul Sterling, Gary Wilson, Nial O’Brien(wk), Kevin O’Brien, Andrew Poynter, Andrew McBrine/George Dockrell, Boyd Rankin, Tim Murtagh, Craig Young, Max Sorensen