Bangladesh’s poor performances have been compounded by the loss of star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who was ruled out of the tournament due to a hamstring injury after the loss against the West Indies. He is currently the highest ranked all-rounder on the official ICC table.
Bangladesh lost to South Africa on Tuesday night and sits at the bottom of group 1.Credit:Getty Images
West Indies are also out of the running for the semi-finals after just one win from three matches, which included being bowled out for 55 against England.
Not that Australia fared much better in their most recent match, being bowled out by England for 125 to lose by eight wickets with 50 balls to spare. It once again highlighted the flaky and unpredictable nature of Australia’s batting.
Australia’s senior assistant coach Andrew McDonald believes the coming matches will be very different to those difficult mid-year encounters following the return of Australia’s front-line batting line-up in different conditions.
“It’s a slightly different group (of players) but the reality is Bangladesh did have a significant series win against us on their home soil and so did the West Indies so the two games in front of us give us a great measuring stick as to how far we’ve moved forward,” McDonald said.
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He believes the change of conditions will be significant given that both Australia’s remaining group matches are day games and the dew will not be a factor.
In night matches the team bowling first usually have a significant advantage because the ball moves around under lights before the dew comes down later in the match, allowing the ball to skid on.
“We’ll probably get a little bit of a trial by spin, which has been our great challenge over the last 12 to 18 months,” McDonald said.
“We feel with Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell coming back into the line-up along with Aaron Finch and David Warner we’ve probably got some capable players against spin compared to what we had on the last tour.”
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Australia face must-win matches to make semi-finals
Source: Philippines Alive
