BAN vs AUS | 3rd T20I: Tigers smell historic series win over depleted Kangaroos

Bangladesh have an outstanding chance of attaining an unprecedented height in the third T20I of the series against Australia. They have won the first two T20Is of the series and can win their first series against the tourist for the first time in any format.

Australia, on the other hand, will be desperate to keep the series alive although their prospect does not look too bright.

They have missed their established players such as Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, and Marcus Stoinis, but the failure of young players to step up their performances have let them down so far in the series.

If it wasn’t for Mitchell Marsh’ brilliance with the bat, the situation could well have been much more embarrassing for the tourists in the series.

On the other hand, Bangladesh spinners Mahedi Hasan and Nasum Ahmed, along with Mustafizur Rahma, who has a lot of tricks up his sleeve, have squeezed the Australian batsmen.

Australia have been in such dire straits that two of the lowest total in their T20I history have come in the series so far and the agony does not seem to have a swift and pleasant end for them as well.

Bangladesh vs Australia: Match Details

Match Number- 03

Date and Time: 06 August, 2021, 05:30 pm IST, 06:00 pm Local, 12:00pm GMT

Venue: Sher-E-Bangla Stadium, Dhaka

Live Stream: FanCode

Pitch report

The pitches so far at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur have been slow and lower in nature. The Australians were hoping for such conditions before hedging to the all-important T20 World Cup, but their performance will not give comforting signs to the team management.

Team News

Bangladesh

Somya Sarkar has not been able to deliver so far in the series could face the heat. However, he is unlikely to be dropped from the third game of the series.

Apart from him, Bangladesh should not contemplate making any change in the playing XI.

Probable XI

Mohammad Naim, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah (c), Nurul Hasan (wk), Afif Hossain, Shamim Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed

Australia

The opening pair of Alex Carey and Josh Phillipe has been abysmal so far in the series. However, Australia don’t have too many options at the top of the order and will back the duo to finally translate their Big Bash performance onto the big stage.

Probable XI

Alex Carey, Josh Philippe, Mitchell Marsh, Moises Henriques, Matthew Wade (c & wk), Ashton Turner, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

Fantasy XI

Matthew Wade, Moises Henriques, Nurul Hasan, Josh Phillipe, Mitchell Marsh (C), Shakib Al Hasan (VC), Nasun Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Mustafizur Rahman

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Jofra Archer ruled out of T20 World Cup, Ashes series after recurrence of stress fracture

In a massive setback to England, star pacer Jofra Archer has been ruled out of the action for the entire year and will miss all of the Test series against India, ICC World T20 and the Ashes series at the end of the year. The pacer has suffered a recurrence of a stress fracture in his right elbow, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement. Notably, Archer has undergone surgery and got a bone fragment removed from the right elbow. He returned for Sussex in the County Championship but could not last long in the field with lingering pain. “The England and Wales Cricket Board can confirm that England fast bowler Jofra Archer underwent further scans on his injured right elbow last week. The scans revealed that he has suffered a recurrence of a stress fracture of his right elbow. In response to these findings, he has been ruled out for the rest of the year and will miss the current LV= Insurance Test series against India, the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 and the Ashes series in Australia,” the ECB said. Archer has suffered repetitive injuries this year as he had to go through surgery on his finger after injuring it while cleaning a fish tank at his home. Archer’s absence from the marquee events such as the World T20 and the Ashes series will come as a massive setback for England’s fortunes in Australia and the UAE.

ENG vs IND | Rahul - Rohit bring up India's 3rd consecutive 50-plus stand at Trent Bridge

Stamping their class over the proceedings of the first Test against England, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul put on the highest partnership by Indian openers in England. They surpassed the previous best partnership by openers set by Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund in the first Test of the series in 2011 at Lord’s. Staring from the overnight score of 21/0, both Rohit and Rahul batted with caution and did not allow England with an opportunity to breakthrough in the first session. The fifty partnership between them is also the third consecutive fifty run partnership by the Indian opening pair at the Trent Bridge, Nottingham. Earlier in 2018, India had opening partnerships of 60 each in both the innings of the third Test of their last tour of England. Notably, KL Rahul has been a constant part of all those three fifty-plus partnerships at the top of the order. He had stitched partnerships with Shikhar Dhawan. It could well have been the fourth fifty-plus opening partnership in three Tests but the opening pair of Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan could manage 49 runs for the first wicket in the first Test of the series in 2014. Earlier, on the first day of the ongoing Test, India bowled England out for 183 runs on the back of a four-wicket haul by Jasprit Bumrah and a three-wicket haul by Mohammed Shami.

New Zealand set to tour Pakistan after 18 years; to play ODI, T20I series

Pakistan are set to host New Zealand for the first time since 2003 for a limited-overs series. The Blackcaps will play three ODIs and five T20Is next month before the big event of ICC World T20 is scheduled to take place in UAE. The ODIs will be played in Rawalpindi while the T20Is will be played in Lahore. New Zealand will be the sixth international side to tour Pakistan after South Africa, West Indies, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe since the terrorist attack on Sri Lanka side in 2009. "I am pleased New Zealand Cricket has accepted our offer to play two additional Twenty20 Internationals. These will not only provide extra games to both the countries as part of their ICC Men's T20 World Cup preparations, but will also allow New Zealand players to spend extra days in Pakistan, familiarise with our culture and enjoy our hospitality,” PCB chief executive Wasim Khan said in a press release. "With leading cricket playing countries resuming their tours to Pakistan in 2019, I remain confident and optimistic that the 2021-22 season starting with the series against New Zealand will prove to be a catalyst in rejuvenating our talented youngsters while attracting new fans to the game that has the most passionate following in the country." Earlier yesterday, New Zealand had announced full limited-overs tours to Bangladesh.

Inside out | Bumrah regains vengeance, 'unlucky' Shami corrects old mistakes to buy new luck

There were two sets of debates that started during the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand. First, it was about Jasprit Bumrah, who failed to leave an impact on the game, and the second was about the role and credentials of Mohammed Shami in England conditions. It was wondered if Bumrah had lost his venom and with that the ability to produce bite off the surface and movement in the air after returning from injury. For Shami, it was an argument that his bowling partner Ishant Sharma faced for years before he finally changed his methods and settled the debate. It was argued if Mohammed Shami has not bowled enough full deliveries in England to affect dismissals instead of looking pretty of bowling by big moving back of length deliveries. There was a debate between Star Sports commentators Dinesh Karthik, who argued that Shami has bowled enough good balls to have more wickets in his bag than he actually has, and former England captain Nasser Hussain, who said that how many more Test matches than 10 one bowler needs to prove his mettle. India were completely outplayed in that game by New Zealand, and they were outbowled comprehensively by their Kiwi counterparts. What proved to be their deficiency? It was the good old swing, generated by bowling full length that failed them on the big occasion. India have their strongest bowling attack now, and they can’t go to someone else having left Bhuvneshwar Kumar in India to take advantage of conditions favouring swing bowling. Hence, what they needed was a change in approach and methods to get batsmen out, and it was fitting that Bumrah started off the proceedings well. In the very first over of the day, he set up Rory Burns with away going deliveries. The batsman left alone a couple of them, while others forced him to play as Bumrah was taking the ball away from way outside the line of leg stump. The fourth ball of the over moved away from Burns after pitching in the line of the stumps and forcing him to play at it. A flummoxed Burns could not see a whooping inswinger coming his way, and he was late on the ball that swung back towards his pads, and Bumrah had settled the debate about his venom by the first over itself. Shami had picked up some wickets in the first innings of the WTC final, but his lengths, in general, was not fully in the fullish zone. And, like Bumrah, he too had to adopt course correction to reap the rewards. He was given the new ball and he made good use of it by bowling fuller length. He made a swift change in his bowling style and did not just put the ball up there for batsmen to drive at juicy half volleys in search of swing, but he added impetus by using all the variations he had up his sleeve. The pair of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow stood up with the best resistance and they tested Bumrah and Shami for their accuracy and relentlessness. Turned out, they were up for the challenge. On numerous occasions, both of them beat both Root and Bairstow around the off-stump with balls they could not have survived without a piece of good luck. With less than half an hour left in the afternoon session, Virat Kohli first brought Bumrah into the attack to challenge Bairstow and Root, and he heard the call from his captain. He was almost all over Joe Root with big inswingers, one after another, He also slipped in one booming yorker that asked Root to defend valiantly to save his off stump. Bumrah got one to jagg one back sharply off the surface as Root got very late on the last ball of the over, but luckily, the inside edge gound went flying between stumps and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant to fine leg boundary. The story was similar on the other end as the Indian skipper changed Siraj from the other end with Shami with just a couple of overs left for the break. He was bowling more fuller balls throughout the day than his previous appearances on England soil. Shami returned with outswingers the game of hiding the ball outside off along with straightening the line of attack to induce shots from Bairstow continued throughout the over. However, Shami did not try to bring one back towards the right-hander and was just altering the line of outswingers to ask Bairstow to play at it from the line of the stumps. Not for so long though. The first ball he bowled in the next over was a whooping inswinger that found Bairtsow rooted to the crease in anticipation of an away going delivery. It was Shami at his deceptive best, Albeit the wicket of Bairstow was well thought out and as a result of perfect setup and imagination on how to deceive batsman, on either side of that wicket, Shami earned wickets with pieces of good luck. He kept on troubling Sibley with one that swung away from the line of off stump but got him dismissed with one starting on the pad that held up a touch in the surface. The batsman had found another frustrating way to get out but Shami, who has been “unlucky” all this while did not complain one bit. He also got one more with another moment of good luck when Dan Lawrence compounded England’s misery by strangling the ball to Pant’s gloves. Shami was fuller in length, straighter in line to induce many false shots but yielded no rewards in the first session of the day. The scoreboard will not dictate how he got those two wickets and that’s exactly the way natural justice works as scoreboards will also not dictate how brilliantly he bowled in the first session of the day. India’s move to play Shardul Thakur as the fourth seamer also paid dividends as he cut short the main bowlers’ task by taking two big wickets. Jasprit Bumrah reestablished that he was back with a vengeance when Sam Curran attempted to repeat his 2018 heroics with the bat. India’s inability to wipe off the tail has been well documented, and Bumrah made sure the first day of the series will not be a continuation of the same agonising journey. He switched to round the wicket angle and started bamboozling Broad with deliveries that swung away from the line of stumps. After beating him on numerous occasions, the pacer employed his famous trick—yorker to find Broad’s toe in front of the stumps. The master that Broad is of bowling unplayable deliveries to left-handers from round the wicket had taste of his own medicine as he gave himself out lbw after missing a toe-crusher from Bumrah. Indian pace attack led by Jasprit Bumrah, and aptly supported by Shami was well aware of the challenges they were to face. They were mindful of the problems they faced in the WTC final and as they have shown over the last few years, they were able to put all; those harsh lessons learnt into good effect to put England on the brink on the very first day of the series. There are many challenges remaining for them to win in the series, but the pace battery has started on a welcome note for Virat Kohli’s India and has rung alarm bells in the Joe Root-led England camp.