Bangladesh won the toss and chose to bat first, as their crucial Group B encounter with Ireland prepared to get underway at Dhaka. There
will be many higher-profile fixtures than this in the coming weeks, but few could prove as pivotal to the fortunes of two teams who exceeded expectations four years ago in reaching the Super Eights in the Caribbean, but whose hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals this time around could well hinge on how they fare against one another.Bangladesh come into the fixture on the back of a heavy defeat in their tournament opener against India last week, in which Virender Sehwag's brutal 175 proved to be the difference between the teams. Nevertheless, their batting showed plenty of character in adversity, with Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan producing a pair of fifties after the opener Imrul Kayes had launched their innings with a flurry of boundaries. They are well attuned to their home conditions, and will back their battery of slow bowlers to keep Ireland under wraps in the way that they were unable to manage with India.
Ireland, meanwhile, are the last of the 14 teams to launch their campaign, and will be hoping that the protracted build-up to the match will have enabled them to acclimatise fully ahead of a major challenge. They won on the last occasion that these two teams faced each other at the World Cup, during the Super Eight stage in Bridgetown four years ago, and though they have since lost the services of Eoin Morgan, who would be playing for England but for injury, they have welcomed back their former star Ed Joyce, who was an England batsman in that same tournament.
Shakib had no hesitation in taking first use of a typically true Mirpur surface, and will be banking on Tamim and the Bangladesh top-order to post a total that their spinners can defend under the floodlights later in the game. Since the India match, the batting line-up has been reinforced by the recall of the mercurial Mohammad Ashraful, arguably the most talented strokeplayer the country has ever produced, but whose performances have rarely lived up to expectation. Perhaps this will be the stage on which he will finally click.
Bangladesh 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Imrul Kayes, 3 Junaid Siddique, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim, 5 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 6 Raqibul Hasan, 7 Mohammad Ashraful, 8 Naeem Islam, 9 Abdur Razzak, 10 Shafiul Islam, 11 Rubel Hossain.
Ireland 1 Will Porterfield, 2 Paul Stirling, 3 Ed Joyce, 4 Niall O'Brien, 5 Andrew White, 6 Kevin O'Brien, 7 Andre Botha, 8 John Mooney, 9 Trent Johnston, 10 George Dockrell, 11 Boyd Rankin.
