The Bangladesh Cricket Team will be playing two warm-up matches leading up to the T20 World Cup 2022. They will play those warm-up games against South Africa and Afghanistan on the 17th and 19th of October, 2022 respectively.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the full fixtures for the T20 World Cup 2022 to be held in Australia. The T20 WorldCup kick starts on October 22, 2022. All the 16 participating teams will play two warm-up games each, leading up to the T20 World Cup. All the warm-up games before the T20 World Cup 2022 will be held in Melbourne and Brisbane.
The teams in the first-round qualifiers will play their warm-up matches in Melbourne from October 10 to October 13, 2022. The matches will be evenly distributed between the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Junction Oval.
The teams qualified for the Super 12 will play all their warm-up fixtures in Brisbane. The matches will take place over two days starting on October 17, 2022, and ending the next day.
The matches will take place at the Gabba and the Allan Border Field.
Importance of the Warm-Up games for Bangladesh
It is safe to say that Bangladesh Cricket Team has not been performing at its potential in the past few months in T20Is. They were the first team to get eliminated in the group stages of Asia Cup 2022 after suffering successive defeats against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
The Bangladesh Cricket team will also play a Tri-Nation series in New Zealand leading up to T20 World Cup 2022. They will take on hosts New Zealand and Pakistan in the tournament. Both New Zealand and Pakistan are strong T20I teams. Bangladesh would need to perform at its best to pose a challenge.
Also, the warm-up games along with the Tri-Nation series can prove to be ideal preparation for the Bangladesh team. In the warm-up matches, they will be playing against a strong Afghanistan team, who beat them easily in the group stages of Asia Cup 2022. They will also play South Africa, which is a strong T20I team.
Improvements needed in the Bangladesh Team for the T20 World Cup 2022
With the absence of veteran opening batsman Tamim Iqbal, Bangladesh’s batting has looked out of sorts. They have tried multiple opening pairs, but all of them have failed to perform.
Opener Tamim Iqbal is on a six-month break from T20I cricket. But Bangladesh fans would hope to see him play for the country in the T20 World Cup 2022. His presence in the top order can provide stability to the team.
Their middle order in the Asia Cup 2022 has looked fragile too. Now with the retirement of senior wicket-keeper batsman Mushfizur Rahim, they would need to find a reliable batsman in the middle order to boost their chances. The team management is looking to bring star-opening batsman Liton Das in the middle order to provide stability to the team.
As usual, skipper Shakib al Hasan and senior batsman Mahmudullah Riyad will be the key for Bangladesh batting if they want to do well in the T20 World Cup 2022. Bangladesh also needs to find a decent fast bowling combination with Mustafizur Rehman at the helm of it. The team has failed to defend good scores in the past too.
Bangladesh Cricket Team Schedule for the T20 World Cup 2022
Bangladesh has directly qualified for the T20 World Cup this time around. Unlike the previous editions where they had to play qualifiers to enter the World Cup. Bangladesh Cricket Team is in the Group 2 of the T20 World Cup 2022.
The team will start its T20 World Cup 2022 campaign on October 24, 2022. They will play their first match against the qualifying team from the first round of the fixtures. Bangladesh will face South Africa in their second group match of the T20 World Cup campaign at the Sydney Cricket ground at 8:30 AM IST.
Their third game will see them playing against the second qualifying team of the Round 1 qualifying fixtures. The match will be held on 30 October 2022 at 8:30 AM in Gabba. Their last two group stage matches will be against Asian heavyweights India and Pakistan.
Both matches will be held at the Adelaide Oval on the 2nd and 6th of November at 1:30 PM and 9:30 PM IST respectively.
Earlier, the BCB decided to hold a small camp for the Bangladesh Cricket team in Australia for better training leading up to the T20 World Cup 2022. But, with the Tri-Nation series and the warm-up games, the schedule became hectic, and eventually, the BCB had to cancel the plan.
