Match Preview – 1st June 2017 – 1030 – Venue – The Oval, London
England will be looking to open their ICC Champion’s Trophy account with a win against Bangladesh at the Oval. England head into the match on the back of a brilliant series win over number one ranked side South Africa, but were brought down to earth with a bang after capitulating in the dead rubber third match at Lord’s. Bangladesh have also been in impressive form in recent matches, beating New Zealand, Ireland and Sri Lanka in their most recent outings and have risen to sixth in the latest ICC One-Day international rankings.
England won’t be worried by their defeat to South Africa last time out as it was a dead rubber with the series already won. The intensity they played with in the first two matches against the ICC ranked number one side in the world, will give Eoin Morgan and his side massive confidence heading into a world tournament on home soil. They will be sweating though on the fitness of talismanic all-rounder Ben Stokes who was rested from the final match with a suspected knee injury. Stokes alongside Chris Woakes and England Test captain Joe Root will need to be in top form for England to still be in contention at the business end of this tournament. Bangladesh enter their first ICC Champions Trophy since 2006 with confidence of making a genuine impact in this tournament having lost to both Sri Lanka and the West Indies in the qualifying round last time round. They will be looking at this game against England as a perfect match to cause an upset with tough matches against Australia and New Zealand to follow. They will also be buoyed by the fact they have won four of the last seven matches against England having previously gone ten years without success since their introduction to international cricket. The Tigers will be reliant on veteran captain Mashrafe Mortaza and experienced left-arm spinner Shakib Al-Hasan if they are to upset the odds and force a positive result against England.
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