Given Bangladesh's previous bright successes in one-day internationals against top-ranked sides both at home and abroad, Bangladesh national selector Habibul Bashar believes the Tigers will be able to repeat the feat against their English counterpart in the upcoming series, which begins on March 1.
The England national cricket team, who are visiting the country, will play three one-day internationals (ODIs) and a similar number of Twenty20 internationals (T20Is) against the host.
Bangladesh began consistently performing in the 50-over game in 2015, a trend that has continued to this day. During their tenure, the Tigers have recorded notable victories over major opponents such as India, South Africa, Pakistan, England, Australia, New Zealand, and the West Indies.
And perhaps their most anticipated victory came in the last year during their visit to South Africa, where they sealed the three match ODIs by 2-1, at their lodge, giving the Tigers selector a firm belief this time as well.
‘We have been defeating our biggest counterparts. Not only inside the Bangladesh, we also beat South Africa at their den, and it was the best of all our victories, as beating South Africa in their condition is really difficult,' said Habibul on Friday.
However, taking the defending champions' previous results across the formats into account, the former Bangladesh skipper also acknowledged that earning victories against them wouldn’t be easy.
'This England team has been performing incredibly. They featured the same as Australia in all formats from 2002-2003 to 2007-2008.It’s not easy to beat them.’
The 50-year-old also emphasized the importance of playing good cricket in order to finish on a high note against the visitors.
‘We all need to play good cricket if we want to win. That is not the case; we must do something different.Whatever good we are doing now, if we can continue it, I think we wouldn’t have to do anything unusual.’
Bangladesh have played 17 ODIs against England, where they could manage just four wins, and in T20Is they lost the one-off tie.
