The Bangladesh men’s cricket team upset the majority of the cricket fans in their first of two matches in the T20I series against the UAE on Sunday (September 25). The team Tigers had a difficult outing overall and just narrowly won the contest by 7 runs. With less than three weeks left before the T20 World Cup 2022 begins, the expectation from Bangladesh is to show a commanding performance against the ICC’s associate nation, UAE. Can the Tigers fulfill the expectations in the Bangladesh vs UAE second match of the series?
Bangladesh vs UAE 2022: Second T20I Match Preview
Bangladesh have a 2-0 advantage in head-to-head contests over the United Arab Emirates and will start as favourites to win the second T20I as well as the series. However, all eyes will be on how the Bangladesh players fare in the contest. The match will start at 8 p.m. (Bangladesh Standard Time) at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday (September 27).
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Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s overall team performance in the first match wasn’t up to the mark, failing to impress the majority of the fans. Bangladesh’s captain for the series, Nurul Hasan Sohan, did well in the fielding setup and bowling rotation. Nurul’s outing as a power hitter in the lower middle order was decent; he scored 35 runs off 25 balls. Afif Hossain impressed everyone with his aggression with the bat. He remained unbeaten with 77 with 140 strike rates. Except for these two batters, others failed miserably, and at one stage they seemed to finish the innings well below 150. Solid performances from the top order and from the middle orders will be expected in the second match. In particular, the focus will be on the batters strike rates.
Left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam and off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz were the two successful bowlers for Bangladesh in the series opener. They both scalped 3 wickets each with an economy rate of under 6. However, what’s more worrying is that the team’s premier fast bowler, Mustafizur Rahman, failed to put pressure on the opposition batting line-up despite picking up two wickets. The Tigers' go-to spinner, Nasum Ahmed, was also ineffective, and medium pacer Mohammad Saifuddin, was the costliest bowler of the match.
The BCB now needs to rethink whether they were expecting unrealistically from Saifuddin. The right-hand pacer hasn’t been able to fulfill his expectations in recent series. He has snatched 18 wickets in 16 outings with an economy rate of 8.17 since January 2021. The important thing is to consider that the majority of his successes have come against weaker opponents or in familiar conditions. Saifuddin’s inclusion in the World Cup squad may not turn out as expected as the Cricket Board hoped for. The Tigers' bowling unit needs to come up with a better plan and show a dominant performance in the second match against the UAE.
Predicted Playing XI (Bangladesh)
Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Sabbir Rahman, Litton Das, Afif Hossain, Yasir Ali, Mosaddek Hossain, Nurul Hasan (captain & wicket-keeper), Nasum Ahmed, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam
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UAE
The United Arab Emirates side will be delighted with the way they performed against Bangladesh in the first match of the 2-match Twenty20 International series. The UAE bowlers kept pressure on the Bangladesh batting unit till the halfway stage and were controlling the innings. Afif Hossain and Nurul Hasan came to the rescue, putting on an unbeaten 81*-run stand to help Bangladesh post a challenging total. Sabir Ali, Aayan Afzal Khan, and Karthik Meiyappan had fruitful outings against the Bangladesh batters with better economy rates. They will once again be important in the second match.
Chirag Suri and Aayan Afzal Khan went after the Bangladesh bowling unit, and they weren’t hesitant to play strokes in the middle. In the series finale, these two batters will look to put pressure on the visiting side bowlers, so Bangladesh must be ready to deal with their aggression. There were other batters who started well but couldn’t prolong their innings, so they will try to have better outings in the second match.
Predicted Playing XI (UAE)
Muhammad Waseem, Chirag Suri, Aryan Lakra, Vriitya Aravind (wicket-keeper), Chundangapoyil Rizwan (captain), Basil Hameed, Aayan Afzal Khan, Zawar Farid, Karthik Meiyappan, Junaid Siddique, Sabir Ali
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Bangladesh vs United Arab Emirates Second T20I: Weather Prediction and Toss
The temperature in Dubai on Tuesday will likely be pleasant with an expected 34 degrees Celsius. Even though Bangladesh won the first match by defending a 150+ total, the recent statistics indicate that the chasing team has a way better record than batting first. The toss-winning team, therefore, may opt to field first.
Bottom Line
Bangladesh showed a disappointing performance in the first of the 2-match series against the UAE ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup. The performance of most of the players in the team was very disappointing. Therefore, everyone in the Tigers' playing XI should be more focused on their duties and committed to performing well in the Bangladesh vs UAE second Twenty20 International.
Read: A narrow escape: Bangladesh beat UAE by 7 runs in 1st T20