New Delhi:
Two time champs Australia shall be taking on Bangaldesh in a group A encounter of the Champions Trophy at the Oval on Monday. The two sides havent faced each other for a while with the last encounter at the ICC 2015 World Cup being washed away by rain.
Australia were lucky to escape a possible defeat to New Zealand in their opener as the Kiwis had them reeling for 53 for 3 in 9 overs before rain halted any further play in the game. Australian pace attack bowled well to curtail New Zealand towards the end of their innings. However the Kiwi seamers dented the Australian top order with regular strikes but the rain Gods were kind enough to save the day for the Aussies. Jos Hazelwood was particualry impressive with his 6 wickets haul.
Australians will be tempted to play leggie Adam Zampa against Bangladesh. The leggie was their highest wicket-taker in 2016. Meanwhile hard hitting batsman Chris Lynn was also seen going through an extended net session.
Meanwhile Bangaldesh were overpowered by hosts England in their opener at Oval on June 1. Bangladesh batted well to post a challenging 300 run target but dint have the firepower to defend the total against a formidable English batting lineup. Opener Tamim Iqbal stroked a fluent century and was well supported by Mushfiqur Rahim to help Bangladesh post a challenging total.
Both the team shall be looking to secure their first points of the campaign and hope to restore their chances of progressing to the knockouts. Australia are one of the top title contenders as they have the balance and arsenal in their squad to go the distance. England are currently topping Group A with a comrpehensive win over Bangladesh in the tourney opener.
Australia: (probable) 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Moises Henriques/Chris Lynn, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Travis Head, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 & 10 John Hastings/Adam Zampa/Pat Cummins, 11 Josh Hazlewood
Bangladesh: (probable) 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Sabbir Rahman, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 5 Mahmudullah, 6 Shakib Al Hasan, 7 Mosaddek Hossain, 8 Mehedi Hasan, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), 10 Rubel Hossain, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
