The first Test match between England and Bangladesh will be played at the Lord's in London from the 27th of May. England will go into the Tests with supreme confidence given their performances leading up to the games. They have entered the finals of the T20 World Cup, and to add to that, they have also beaten Bangladesh in every game on their tour of Bangladesh.

On that tour of Bangladesh, they had played two Tests and three ODIs, and won all five games rather comfortably, which means that the side has had a better of the Bangladeshis even in conditions that have been very alien to them. How does the Bangladeshi side adjust to the English conditions will be an interesting point to ponder and with the Lord's ground making things difficult for most touring sides, it cannot get worse for an under-confident Bangladesh side.

In the World T20, Bangladesh had lost both their games in the first round, to Australia and Pakistan, and given that they are not great travellers outside the sub-continent, there cannot be much hope.

However, the Bangladeshis could have some positives going their way. This includes the fact that their opening batsmen, Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes have performed well as a pair in the past and this will be an opportunity for them to take that step-up. The other positive to come out of this is that Jahurul Islam had an excellent tour game against Surrey where he scored a century and should be able to back the two up as an opener in case one of them is unfit or out of form.

However, the onus will again depend on the senior pros like Mohammad Ashraful and Shakib-al-Hasan. Ashraful has had some happy memories of this ground, but his problem has always been his inability to keep his wits around him when required.

Rather surprisingly, Shakib al Hasan form has also taken a beating in the last six months or so, especially after the load of captaincy has also been included in his portfolio. He needs to get going with his batting as that would be very important for the side in more ways than one. of course, there is his bowling to back his batting as well, but with the spinners finding it difficult to come to grips with the moist ball, things may not be as hunky-dory as it sounds.

Tag :- Bangladesh   England   Mohammad Ashraful   Shakib al Hasan   Tamim Iqbal