Tigers eye fresh start in Bulawayo T20s

Bangladesh will look to put behind a disappointing Zimbabwe tour thus far when they take on the hosts in the opener of the three-match T20 International series at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on Wednesday.

The game is scheduled to begin at 4:30pm Bangladesh time.

The Tigers landed in Bulawayo after suffering a frustrating campaign in Harare, where they lost the one-off Test by an innings and 85 runs before going down 2-1 in the One Day International series, avoiding a clean sweep with a convincing victory in the final match.

Bangladesh will again be without regular T20I captain Litton Das, who has been granted leave to play in the Lanka Premier League (LPL).

Litton is still recovering from a calf injury that ruled him out of the home T20I series against Australia before he missed both the solitary Test and the ODI series against Zimbabwe.

In his absence, Towhid Hridoy, who made his captaincy debut against Australia, will continue to lead the side.

Taskin Ahmed, initially unavailable because of his LPL commitment, has been cleared to play the T20I series before joining his franchise.

However, left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman remains unavailable after suffering a hamstring injury during the first ODI in Harare.

He has travelled to England for an assessment with his Hundred franchise, Birmingham Phoenix.

With Mustafizur sidelined, Shoriful Islam is expected to take his place in the pace attack alongside Taskin and Nahid Rana, while leg-spinner Rishad Hossain and left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed are likely to complete the bowling attack with Mosaddek Hossain offering off-spin option.

Queens Sports Club has traditionally offered good batting conditions.

When Zimbabwe hosted Namibia in a T20I series at the venue last September, teams crossed the 200-run mark twice, with the home side winning the series 2-1.

Ahead of the T20 series opener, stand-in captain Hridoy said that he is determined to help the team get back to winning ways.

“It will be my target to help the team win obviously. I will try to serve the team from my end as much as possible, and it is definitely a matter of pride to serve the country,” he noted.

Hridoy believes that it is important to play as a unit to get the maximum results.

“At the same time, getting the result is more important at the end of the day. That is why as a team, we want to win the series,” he continued.

The 25-year-old batter is also aware of their mistakes in the ODI series loss, and know that Zimbabwe is a good side in their own backyard.

"As I mentioned earlier, it's a different condition in a different venue. We know what kind of mistakes we did, so hopefully we will reduce those kind of mistakes and focus on this format," he added.

"In home conditions, Zimbabwe is a good team. There is a little bit of a challenge here and there but we know our strength so hopefully we will bounce back from the mistakes,” he concluded.