ICC World Cup: Bangladesh to take on Australia at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune: AUS won the toss elected to bowl

In the ICC World Cup today, Bangladesh will face Australia at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune. This match between the two teams is going to start at 10.30 am today as part of the world cup 43 match. AUS won the toss and elected to bowl.

Australia have won the toss and have opted to field

Time for the toss. Australia need to tick off a few boxes now. Shanto will be leading today.

Andrew McDonald received a bunch of messages from concerned junior coaches back home on Wednesday (November 8). It was the day after Glenn Maxwell had rewritten the record books and played the greatest ODI knock of all time. He had also along the way challenged if not threatened, inadvertently of course, the legitimacy of the textbook on batting technique. So, it wasn’t surprising for McDonald that he had some of his fellow coaches on the line straight away, considering Maxwell’s mania didn’t contain the “don’t try this at home” disclaimer.

“I had some text messages from some friends that went to cricket training the night after (the Afghanistan match) back home and what were they playing? Reverse-sweeps and scoops. So as a developing player, it’s probably a little bit of a nightmare for the coaches,” McDonald had said with a chuckle.

On Friday (November 10), on the eve of Australia’s last league encounter against Bangladesh, it was McDonald himself who had to deal with a few of his batters displaying signs of being a bit too inspired by their enigmatic teammate. Maxwell himself wasn’t on show at training in Pune, still recovering from the serious bout of cramps he’d suffered from in Mumbai.

Instead it was two batters, who you’d not ideally expect to overturn the textbook and go rogue with their shots, who seemed to have taken up the mantle from the latest double centurion in ODI cricket. And while Marnus Labuschagne didn’t waste any time during his hit in the net to start attempting what else but “reverse sweeps and scoops” and the whole gamut of other shots straight out of the Maxwell book of batting mania. There was a reverse ramp very early on in his stint, with the ball nearly clearing the boundary at deep third. There were also numerous attempts thereafter, some successful, some not so much, at reverse-laps, reverse-scoops and reverse-paddles against both pace and spin.

Not too far away, Cameron Green, was doing the same. Stood across the net from Marcus Stoinis, who must have smashed at least four dozen deliveries into the empty blue seats at the MCA stadium, Green started off in more conventional fashion. But then he too entered the Maxwell twilight zone. Even if to a lesser level in comparison to Labuschagne and began having a go himself at the more unnatural shots in his repertoire.

It was obvious that a handful of days after Maxwell had played arguably the greatest ODI knock of all time, the impact of his miraculous performance was still highly evident in the Australian camp. If anything, they still seemed to be buzzing from it. With their semi-final now confirmed with South Africa, and more or less confirmed for Kolkata, the Aussies now have one final task of continuing their unbeaten run since the third game of their campaign by overcoming a Bangladesh team who will be without their captain and largely dispirited overall after a very disappointing showing in this World Cup. Bangladesh still have a lot to play for, however, with the spot in the next Champions Trophy still very much up for grabs with a number of teams in the lower half of the league table fighting against relegation.

Squads:

Bangladesh Squad: Tanzid Hasan, Litton Das, Najmul Hossain Shanto(c), Anamul Haque, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim(w), Towhid Hridoy, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasum Ahmed, Mahedi Hasan, Hasan Mahmud

Australia Squad: David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis(w), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins(c), Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Steven Smith