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If Bangladesh have one key weapon in their ODI arsenal against the BLACKCAPS it is all-rounder, Shakib Al Hasan. He currently carries the mantle as the world's best all-rounder, according to the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI rankings and was also awarded the Wisden Cricketer magazine's "Test Cricketer of the Year" for 2009.
The young left-hand bat, slow left-arm orthodox bowler has crafted an impressive resume since his debut for his country in 2006. He has garnered an ODI average with the bat of 35.73 and a high score of 134* and has claimed 85 wickets with the ball at an average of 31.68 and economy rate of 4.06.
Over the last year, he has contributed heavily to Bangladesh's good run of form in ODI cricket: in 2009 they played 19 one-day internationals and won 14 of them, including victories over Sri Lanka and the West Indies. The team comes to New Zealand match-hardened in the ODI format, having just completed a competitive Tri-Nations series with Sri Lanka and India. Although they did not reach the final of that series, their lowest batting total was 247 in four matches against two of the heavy-weights of world cricket.
In the last series between these two teams, Bangladesh went 1-nil up before the BLACKCAPS came back to win the series.
Although there was not a lot of it on display in the series-opening Twenty20 match last night, Bangladesh are a team with both talent and commitment at One-Day International Cricket and they will be underestimated at the BLACKCAPS peril.
What the players are saying:
Brendon McCullum: “These guys are a good team and they will be disappointed with the way the played to day and we’re under no illusions that these guys are capable of knocking us over at any given time so we have to play as good as we have done tonight and that’s going to be the challenge over the next couple of weeks,”
Shakib Al Hasan: “We are very confident that we have been playing very good cricket for the last 18 months. I feel that we have a very good bowling attack as far as ODI’s are concerned and our batting is getting better day by day”
Key match up:
Daniel Vettori v Shakib Al Hasan
Vettori’s spin could expose the Bangladesh middle order, which makes captain Shakib Al Hasan all the more critical.
All rounder Al Hasan has been the rock in the batting line up and made and impressive 85 against India in his last dig. He has been on of their best bowlers and currently ranked as the number one all rounder world cricket.
