North Sound (Antigua): It’s a mismatch on paper but title-favourites Australia would be wary of slipping on the proverbial banana peel that Bangladesh can be when the two teams clash in their Super Eight, Group 1, match of the T20 World Cup here on Friday.
Australia, champions of the 2021 edition of the tournament, will be mindful of the dangers of taking Bangladesh lightly.
The supremely confident team from Down Under was humbled 1-4 by the South Asians in a T20 International series in 2021, and any laxity can be severely punished in conditions here that have close resemblance to the sub-continent.
From an Australian perspective, it might bring increased onus on leg-spinner Adam Zampa and part-timers such as Glenn Maxwell and Travis Head.
Keeping in mind the inherent slowness of the pitch here, the Aussies might also mull retaining left-arm spinner Ashton Agar, who is a handy bat too, from their last group match against Scotland.
But irrespective of the conditions or nature of the pitch, Australia’s real strength lies in its pacers — Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood — who are persistently nagging.
Cummins and Hazlewood are set to return for this match after sitting out of the Scotland game.
The Aussies have also received a boost as captain Mitchell Marsh has declared himself fit to bowl in the Super Eight stage.
“I’ll be available to bowl. With the line-up that we’ve got, I don’t really necessarily see a need for me to bowl.
“But I think it’s really important in this format to have options and we’re blessed with plenty of those,” said Marsh in the pre-match press conference.
Not just in bowling, Australia carry heavy guns through their batting line-up as well.
Their top-six consisting of Head, David Warner, Marsh, Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Tim David can be a threat to any bowling line-up in the world.
All of them have chipped in with runs at various stages of this ICC showpiece, and now they will eye a collective firing.
Bangladesh will hope that their assortment of clever and experienced T20 bowlers like Mustafizur Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah and Taskin Ahmed can deliver against the Australian batters.
However, Bangladesh’s real problem lies in a rickety batting line-up.
The batters are as experienced as any of their counterparts in the T20 format, but in this tournament, they have not really joined the party.
They stuttered through the group stage matches, and the highest total they could post was 159 for five against Netherlands.
Their other totals were 125/8, 109/7 (both while chasing against Sri Lanka and South Africa respectively), and 106 while batting first against Nepal.
So, there is a need for them to find their rhythm against a storied opponent.
