There may be something faintly ridiculous, comical even, about England starting a series in Bangladesh within hours of completing one in New Zealand, but there is no lack of seriousness about the task facing them on their first visit here for seven years, nor about the group of players they have assembled for it.
This trip had originally been planned for the autumn of 2021, but was rescheduled for a variety of reasons, not least a chronic case of bubble fatigue. What was intended to be last-minute preparation for a World Cup in one format has become long-distance preparation for another in another. After three ODIs followed by as many T20s, England’s white-ball side will pack away their pyjamas until September, when New Zealand and Ireland visit in the weeks before they defend their 50-over title in India.
Bangladesh’s recent home record in both formats is excellent – since late 2018 they have won 81% of their home ODIs (compared with 48% on their travels), and 58% of their home T20s (compared with 26% away).
India, Australia and New Zealand have lost series here in the past two years, with a few particularly eye-catching scores along the way: in T20s the Kiwis were bowled out for 60 and 93 and Australia for 62, with Matthew Wade bemoaning “the most challenging international pitches I’ve ever played on”.
With an Indian autumn on the horizon this could be handy experience, and England’s past 12 months in white-ball cricket, when they followed a disappointing home summer by winning the T20 World Cup, will ensure that even a run of poor results does not provoke a sense of wild panic (though given the horn-blaring chaos of Dhaka’s streets the drives to the ground just might).
But if those memories provide some collective comfort before a potentially awkward assignment then the presence of Jason Roy – who belatedly joined the squad on Monday, arriving from Pakistan along with James Vince – is a reminder of what is on the line for the players, the opener paying for a summer of stumbles by losing his place not just in the team but in that victorious World Cup squad.
The sense of potential personal peril is real and even without the injured Jonny Bairstow and the multi-format players preparing for the flight home from Wellington this is a devilishly hard team to squeeze into.
If Roy and Dawid Malan open the batting in Wednesday’s opening ODI and Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali play, at least one of Will Jacks, Phil Salt and Vince will have to be left out.
The battle for bowling berths is more bitter still: Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Saqib Mahmood (who will be replaced by Chris Jordan for the T20s), Sam Curran, Chris Woakes and Reece Topley are available, with Adil Rashid and Rehan Ahmed providing spin options.
Ahmed is battling illness and may not make the opening game, but the 18-year-old’s white-ball debut is imminent. It could be, however, that spin does not dominate: Mahmood, who is in line to return to full international action after recovering from a stress fracture of the spine, knows this from personal experience, having excelled on his one previous visit, for the Under-19 World Cup in 2016, when his 13 wickets put him joint third in the tournament rankings.
“We had similar conversations then where we were expecting our spinners to do most of the work,” he said on Monday. But I had a really successful tournament and I want to do the same again.”
