Tigers back in foreign format

With one eye on the ICC World Twenty20, both Bangladesh and Zimbabwe will take the field in Mirpur today to play the first of the two-match T20I series. Truth be told, neither of the teams boast a good record in this format of the game.

While the Tigers have won 12 out of their 44 matches so far, Zimbabwe have won 7 out of 40. And though the two teams have regularly faced each other in Tests and ODIs, they have played each other just thrice in the T20 format, with Bangladesh winning two of those encounters. Interestingly, the teams began their journey in this format by playing against each other in Khulna back in 2006.

While the hosts will have an immense amount of confidence going into this series, courtesy of the emphatic ODI series victory, the fact remains that the Tigers have won just one out of their last five T20Is. The ICC World T20 in Bangladesh last year was a disaster for the hosts, with the Tigers shockingly going down to Hong Kong.

Ever since that World Cup, Bangladesh have played just three T20Is, all of which took place this year. With the next ICC World T20 just a few months away, the hosts are looking to use this series to find their best possible combination.

"We definitely want to win this series, but our main target will be to find out our best possible combination since we have the Asia Cup and the World Cup coming up. We are going to not only look for the playing eleven, but also the top 15, so that we can shuffle players as per the strength of the opposition," said Mashrafe during the pre-match press conference yesterday.

"We want to see what kind of role suits which player. With Shakib [Al Hasan] not in the side this will give us an opportunity to test some of the other players," he added.

Shakib has been Bangladesh's most influential T20I player thus far. He is both the highest wicket-taker and the highest run-getter of the side. Alongside the left-hander, the team will be missing Taskin Ahmed, Rubel Hossain and Soumya Sarkar. Despite the missing players, Mashrafe remained confident.

"It's true that we haven't been that successful in T20s. But the boys are confident after the 3-0 series win and if we can utilise that, then we can win," said the skipper.

It's still not certain whether there will be any changes in the side for today's match compared to the eleven that played the ODIs. Mashrafe however said that there was a good chance for the uncapped Kamrul Islam to make his debut in the series. The other interesting fact is that Anamul Haque is the only Bangladesh batsman to have a batting average above 30 in T20Is.

Zimbabwe skipper Elton Chigumbura echoed Mashrafe's sentiments and said that his side is focused on building a balanced squad ahead of the World Cup in India next year.

"Every guy in the team wants to perform in this series so that they are present in the World Cup squad. At the same time we have to work hard and bounce back," said Chigumbura.

The most notable win for Zimbabwe this year was their 10-run victory over India in July.