Bangladesh

The young, talented Bangladeshi side shone on the world stage at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 with stunning victories over India and South Africa. It will be looking to have a similar impact at the ICC World Twenty20.

But it will face one of the toughest groups at the event, having to take on host nation South African and the West Indies who were ICC Champions Trophy 2006 runners-up, in the opening stage.

Although there were some inconsistent performances in the Caribbean, most notably in its defeat to Ireland in the Super Eight stage, there were plenty of positives to take from the event with a number of players establishing themselves as household names.

Captain Mohammad Ashraful’s masterful 87 against South Africa was one of the innings of the tournament at the CWC 2007, while Tamim Iqbal’s 51 against India at almost run-a-ball illustrated his potential to have an impact on cricket’s biggest stage.

While Bangladesh rely on its spin bowlers, which will force the batsmen to generate their own pace off the ball in Twenty20 cricket, the pace of Mashrafe Mortaza will undoubtedly cause problems for even the best of batsmen.

An outstanding fielding side, Ashraful’s men will also be one of the teams to watch in terms of athleticism, which will help heap pressure on opposing batsmen which is vital in such a short form of the game.

Bangladesh’s only experience of Twenty20 cricket at international level, prior to the CWC 2007, was a defeat of Zimbabwe in November 2006.

And while Bangladesh may be inexperienced at this level and in the Twenty20 format the fact they have tasted victory over some of world cricket’s super powers in ODI cricket, both at the CWC 2007 and in its famous victory over Australia at Cardiff in 2005, means it will be a team to watch closely at this event.

Bangladesh: Mohammad Ashraful (captain), Aftab Ahmed, Nadif Chowdhury, Shakib Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Alok Kopali, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mushfiqur Rahim, Ziaur Rahman, Syed Rasel, Abdur Razzak, Farhad Reza, Zunaed Siddique, Nazim Uddin, Mahmud Ullah.