England, one of the tournament favourites, will get their ICC Women’s World T20 campaign under way when they take on Bangladesh at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.
Bangladesh had a difficult start to the series with a 72-run loss to hosts India, but England captain Charlotte Edwards believes that the experience playing on this wicket will bode well for them.
“There is an advantage for them because they played here before but this competition is about adjusting quickly, so hopefully, we can do that. We’ll be favourites for the match, the ranking says so, but they are not to be underestimated at all,” she said.
“The three warm-up games in Chennai were useful for us in terms of getting used to the conditions and the wickets.”
With the pitches in the tournament generally leaning towards runs, Edwards believes 160-odd would be a fighting total.
“I think 160 is a par score here and that’s what we will be looking at if we were to bat first. We want to play exciting brand of cricket and hopefully, we can do and go on and win it,” she stated.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh captain Jahanara Alam wants to put the defeat against India behind and start afresh. “We made a few errors and there were some nerves also against India. But it is part of the game. It was a tough match that but we want to forget that and move forward,” she remarked.
Much of the pressure will be on the England captain and the experienced Katherine Brunt to shore up the batting and bowling departments.
