Zimbabwe will host international cricket again as they welcome Bangladesh to Southern Africa.
Bangladesh return to the continent after a productive trip to South Africa earlier this year.
Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh | First T20I | Saturday 30 July 2022 | Harare Sports Club, Harare | 13:00
Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh bowls during the ICC Cricket World Cup Group match between South Africa and Bangladesh at The Oval, London on 02 June 2019 ©Gavin Barker/BackpagePix
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe return to hosting winter cricket and as a result are likely to lay on conditions that their opponents could enjoy.
Despite being a typically hard track, the Harare pitch has offered some variation but a par score is typically around the 160 mark which Zimbabwe failed to reach in any of their three T20Is against Afghanistan in June.
Innocent Kaia has shown promise as an opening bat but probably needs to up his strike rate in T20Is.
Allrounders Craig Ervine, Sikandar Raza and Ryan Burl are likely to be crucial to the Zimbabwe cause.
Tendai Chatara and Donald Tiripano are the leaders of the attack but have made minimal impact in recent matches and need to improve to give the Chevrons any chance.
Bangladesh
Nurul Hasan has been handed the T20 captaincy with a number of veterans unavailable.
Tamim Iqbal’s retirement presents the younger batters a chance to cement themselves in the team on this tour.
The team will be without Tamim, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib-al-Hasan for this series.
Mustafizur Raman and Mehedy Hasan ensure that the Tigers have class in both pace and spin and the bowlers might be asked to do the heavy lifting for this series.
Verdict: Bangladesh
On a dry wicket, Bangladesh should have the quality to put down Zimbabwe.
