The T20 World Cup 2024 now shifts to Kingstown as the teams look to seal the super-eight spots. Bangladesh will take on the Netherlands at the Arnos Vale stadium which has not hosted an international match in nearly 10 years. Incidentally, Bangladesh was one of the teams that last played a match on this venue when they were beaten by the West Indies in a test match. Both sides will be hoping for the pitch to be batting-friendly after struggling in New York.
A win for either side will boost their chances massively of qualifying for the super-eights round. Bangladesh arrive in this game after a hectic travel schedule as their charter flight from New York was delayed for five hours. They reached the hotel in Kingstown early morning on Tuesday and had to cancel their training for that day.
Apart from the travel stress, Bangladesh are also dealing with the heartbreaking setback they received against South Africa in their previous fixture as they suffered a close defeat. Their batting has been a concern for a while now specifically the opening pair. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto opened the innings alongside Tanzid Hasan against South Africa as Soumya Sarkar was left out on the bench, but this didn’t work out either as once again they were not able to hit double figures.
Bangladesh’s bowling attack has been impressive and the Netherlands would be aware of the threat they pose. Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Taskin Ahmed can trouble the Dutch top order, before Mustafizur Rahman and Rishad Hossain look to contain the flow of runs during the middle overs. The pace trio has also been up to the mark in the death overs. Veteran allrounder Mahmudullah has been economical with the ball, but the concerns would be about Shakib Al Hasan who has had a poor start to the tournament.
The Dutch side themselves have been impressive with the ball in this edition of the T20 World Cup, defeating Nepal in Dallas and putting up a great fight against Proteas in New York. Logan van Beek, Bas de Leede, and Tim Pringle have bowled with heart along with Vivian Kingma and Meekeren.
They, however, do share similar concerns with Bangladesh as their batting hasn’t turned up to the occasion. Max O’Dowd has scored their only half-century in this tournament, while other batters have been disappointing, particularly Michael Levitt who has been their most in-form batter leading up to the mega event.
Bangladesh will be looking to strengthen their batting lineup. Bangladesh could be looking towards the option of including Soumya Sarkar or Mehdi Hasan. The Netherlands are unlikely to make any change in their playing XI barring any last-minute injuries.
The Arnis Vale stadium will surely have a lot of eyeballs on it, especially after what we have witnessed in New York. This stadium hasn’t hosted a Caribbean Premier League match either, so it is difficult to have an idea about the playing conditions. The weather forecast does show a bit of rain early morning.
