🏏Cricket World Cup 2023: Match #7: Bangladesh vs England 10 Oct 🏏

🏏Cricket World Cup 2023: Match #7: Bangladesh vs England at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala on 10th of October 2023 at 10:30 AM IST🏏

Chastened England need to make a noise, but Bangladesh can be loud too

The Dharamsala outfield has dominated talk in the build-up, but the teams have to get past it once they get down to business

Six matches down, 42 to come… it's too soon to form any broad judgements about the destiny of the 2023 World Cup. However, as England's chastened cricketers head for the tournament's highest peak in Dharamsala, they do so with clear reason to doubt their readiness to scale the heights that they conquered so memorably on home soil four years ago.

It's not that Jos Buttler's men cannot bounce back from that unfathomably vast drubbing against New Zealand in Ahmedabad. Resilience has been an under-appreciated feature of the champion team that they have built up over the past eight years - perhaps never better demonstrated than in their backs-to-the-wall escape from the group stage in 2019.

And so, when Buttler exhorts his men to be "braver" in their play against the ever-dangerous Bangladesh on Tuesday, there's no reason yet to think that they cannot and will not raise their game - much as they did after a troublingly meek loss to Ireland en route last year's T20 World Cup win in Australia, or indeed when New Zealand delivered them a similarly emphatic smackdown in their opening ODI in Cardiff in September.

The wider concern for England is that such wake-up calls should be necessary at all. Their opening display betrayed an understandable degree of rustiness, given the condensed nature of their tournament build-up, but moreover a lack of clarity across their XI. Once it had become clear that England's batting had failed to fulfil its side of the bargain - and ESPNcricinfo's ball-by-ball data showed that the most attacking line-up in ODI history had attacked a mere 17% of its deliveries across their flatlining innings - the bowlers (World Cup winners one and all) broadly panicked, jettisoning any pretence that they could defend a sub-par total of 282, and instead imploding in a rash of attacking desperation.

At which point, enter a familiar World Cup nemesis. Bangladesh can hardly claim the foothills of the Himalayas as "home" conditions, but their perfunctory dispatching of Afghanistan at this same venue on Saturday was a satisfactory means of establishing their own credentials as one of the five Asian sides competing in this tournament. And, as if England won't already be wary, their World Cup memories from Chittagong in 2011 and, famously, Adelaide in 2015 - two previous occasions when Bangladesh bested their confused campaigners - ought to have put their game-brains on red alert.

And yet, as Shakib and Mehidy Hasan Miraz showed in sharing six wickets between them against Afghanistan, Bangladesh's spinners have already made themselves at home on this ground, while the sand-based outfield that drew such a scathing critique from Jonathan Trott, Afghanistan's head coach, offers a further potential impediment to England's hopes of all-out aggression.

"You want to dive through a row of houses to save a run," as Buttler himself put it, while warning his fielders to guard against injury in the outfield. "That's obviously not ideal, the way the surface is."

It's not the only thing about England's campaign that has not, so far, been ideal. As Bangladesh have shown on this stage before, they are a taxing team to put away when your mind is not fully in the moment.

Tag Credit: Sutapasima

England vs Bangladesh Pitch Report

The pitch at Dharamsala is generally good for batting, but Afghanistan collapsed against Bangladesh's spinners in the last match at this venue. Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz took three wickets each for the Tigers. The pitch may play in the same manner during today's match as well.

England vs Bangladesh Weather Forecast

It will be a sunny day in Dharamsala when England take on Bangladesh at the HPCA Stadium. The temperature will hover around 21 degrees Celsius, with the humidity levels expected to be approximately 54%. Rain isn't expected throughout the course of the game.

Pitch and conditions

The weather is cooler than it had been in Ahmedabad, although not significantly. A fresh pitch has been prepared for this second fixture, two strips across from the surface that proved tough for run-scoring in the Afghanistan vs Bangladesh game, and seam bowlers have previously thrived here, from Tim Bresnan in 2013 to Suranga Lakmal four years later. It's the outfield, however, that has been the focus of the pre-match build-up, with the sand-based surface causing Mujeeb Ur Rahman to jar his knee awkwardly while sliding to intercept a Shakib boundary. The heavy nature of the surface could reduce the reward for ground strokes too.

Teams

England: Ben Stokes has faced throwdowns in the last two days as well as local spinners on Monday, but hasn't looked fully fit and comfortable on both occasions. Jos Buttler said Stokes was 'probably unlikely' for the Bangladesh game. Harry Brook, who was first to bat in the nets on the eve of the game, should keep his spot.

Tactics & Strategy:Liam Livingstone has said England will double down on their white-ball approach having lost their World Cup opener. Dawid Malan, Jos Buttler and Mooen Ali spent a lot of their time on Monday giving the charge to the local spinners summoned to bowl at the nets. Expect a lot of proactive batting against Shakib & co.

Probable XI: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler (c & wk), Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood

Bangladesh: In anticipation of another spin-friendly track, Bangladesh could be tempted to bring in a third spinner - Nasum Ahmed or Mahedi Hasan - for Mahmudullah. It also won't hurt to have a genuine sixth bowling option against the batting might of England.

Tactics & Strategy: Mehidy Hasan Miraz could be in for an early bowling shift in order to contain left-handed opener Dawid Malan, who he has a good record against in this format. Bangladesh will rely heavily on their spinners to choke England through the middle but they'll need their quicks to open and close out the innings well. Bangladesh appear to be in good hands in that regard as Shoriful Islam averages 11.88 in the first PowerPlay (1-10 overs) this year while Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman have been experts at the death (41-50 overs) - with averages of 12.14 and 14.08 respectively.

Probable XI: Tanzid Tamim, Litton Das, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Shakib Al Hasan (c), Towhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mahmudullah/Nasum Ahmed, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman

Thanks for the tag and enjoy double header.

Dharamsala is so much about the altitude, and one of the best panoramic views of snow-capped mountains a cricket stadium can offer. Not that England can afford to pause and admire it too much. The defending champions are at venue No.2 of 8 in a World Cup with a hectic travel schedule and expectations of going all the way.

The conditions in Ahmedabad clipped their enormous white-ball wings and gave them an early jolt, but Dharamsala should be kinder. At this venue 1457 metres above sea level, the ball flies. If a crashing and burning England side could push themselves to 282 in Ahmedabad, imagine what a slightly more efficient effort could get them in Dharamsala.

Bangladesh certainly wouldn't want to. A slow pitch and Afghanistan's naivety played their part, but Shakib Al Hasan's side did a lot of things right to give their World Cup campaign a clinical start. The three-pace, two-spin combination worked, as did many of Shakib's on-field calls of orchestrating them, which should fill Bangladesh with the hope of becoming the earliest giant-killers of the tournament on Tuesday.

Should the pitch - a different one for this game - play slow, Bangladesh have the weaponry to box England in and be their bogey team again. Such a result will not have the impact it did in 2015, when England were pushed to a soul-searching expedition in the format, but two defeats in two could still be nauseating for a pre-tournament favourite. And that won't be because of the altitude.

Stats and trivia

• England and Bangladesh have met at each of the past four World Cups, and honours so far are even. England won their first meeting, in Barbados in 2007, and their most recent in Cardiff four years ago, either side of Bangladesh glory in 2011 and 2015.
• Overall, the rivalry is more one-sided, with 19 England wins to Bangladesh's five. However, since the first of those five, in Bristol in July 2010, the ledger has been more balanced, with England limited to seven wins from their last 12.
• Dharamsala has hosted five completed ODIs in the past ten years. Four of those have been won, very comfortably, by the team batting second… including by England in their only previous visit in 2013, when an Ian Bell century guided them to a consolation seven-wicket win in a 3-2 series loss.
• Jonny Bairstow will be playing in his 100th ODI, the first century of caps that he will have reached across formats. He has also played 95 Tests and 70 T20Is.
• Najmul Hossain Shanto needs 33 runs to reach 1000 in ODIs

In the spotlight - Liam Livingstone and Mehidy Hasan Miraz

In the continued absence of Ben Stokes, and with Moeen likely to make way for an additional seamer, the spotlight falls more squarely on Liam Livingstone as the all-round pivot of this England team. His canny legspin/offspin offerings provide a point of difference that sets him apart, but with so much attention on England's batting right now, that is the facet of his game in which he needs to step up.

Despite a superb 95 not out to turn the recent home series against New Zealand, Livingstone's overall batting form has underwhelmed for some months now. In his final three matches of the English summer, he managed one six and three fours from a total of 96 deliveries. Then in the tournament opener in Ahmedabad last week, he was culpable in England's downfall after holing out meekly for 20 from 22 balls. The impression Livingstone has repeatedly given is of a man too eager to blaze the ball out of the park, and not sufficiently focussed on holding his shape and channelling his undoubted power. Not unlike the England team as a whole, you might say.

Talking of spin-bowling allrounders, Mehidy Hasan Miraz's display against Afghanistan was everything his side could possibly have hoped for. In his primary role, he cleaned up with 3 for 25, including a deliciously dipping offbreak to Hashmatullah Shahidi that lured him into a loose hack to mid-on, and opened Afghanistan up for a collapse of 8 for 42 in 13 overs.

Then, after being sent out to bat at No. 3 after the early run-out of Tanzid Hasan, Mehidy anchored an unruffled chase with 57 from 73 balls, following swiftly on from his century against the same opponents in last month's Asia Cup. His composure as a batter is no secret to anyone who witnessed his series-seizing heroics against India in Mirpur last year, including a century from No. 8, while no fewer than six of England's squad will remember him from his Test debut as a teenager in 2016, when his 12-wicket haul in Mirpur sealed another famous win. It just goes to show, Bangladesh possess a wealth of players with the skill and experience to seize any given day.

What they said:

"It's good for us to have had a couple of really good days in preparation. We're desperate to get out and put in a good performance. We know we didn't play as well in the last game and we're always desperate to put that right, both individually and as a team." - Jos Buttler.

"To be honest, 10 out of 10 [rating for Shakib and Mehidy Hasan's bowling]. They read the pitch well. They analysed which line and length they needed to bowl. And they had a very attacking field setting as well. I'm 100% happy with how they bowled actually." - Bangladesh spin bowling coach Rangana Herath

Thank you, Raji, for the thread and for tagging me.

Though Eng is favorites for many analysts, I am extending good wishes to both teams.

Did you know:

- Shakib Al Hasan has 20 wickets in 17 ODIs against England. Adil Rashid has 19 in 7 against Bangladesh.

- Jos Buttler averages 48.12 in ODIs against Bangladesh, with five fifties in 8 innings.

- Najmul Hossain Shanto averages 64.88 in the middle overs (11-40 overs) in ODIs this year.