Big picture – Can the likes of Mushfiqur and Shakib stand up?
Still, England used predominantly their seamers to attack and restrict the home side. They bowled Bangladesh out for 209, before Dawid Malan’s unbeaten century arrested their own batting slide to seal the win. It was a great effort from a batter who had a stealthy local experience: Malan has played more than 50 matches in Bangladesh in the last ten years.
Both teams will therefore look for batting improvements. Malan’s knock was the only innings of substance for England while Bangladesh needs their batters to make best use of the starts. What would however encourage both sides is their disciplined bowling. Taskin Ahmed and the Bangladesh spinners bowled their heart out. They couldn’t take the remaining three wickets, but they were defending a pretty low total.
England’s bowlers looked to have understood the conditions well too, particularly Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali who ensured Bangladesh’s scoring never went too far. The second ODI promises to be another tight affair. The home side wouldn’t want to let go of their Dhaka dominance.
Form guide
Bangladesh LLWWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
England WLWWW
In the spotlight
It has taken Najmul Hossain Shanto 16 ODIs to reach his first half-century in the format, the second-slowest Bangladeshi to the mark (Litton Das took 17 matches to reach the milestone). It is an important stepping stone for Shanto, who has been trying to establish himself in internationals for the last two years. Admittedly, it is still early days but even Bangladesh’s all-time best batters have taken time to establish themselves, so Shanto has some company. Still, his dismissal for 58 in the first ODI could have been avoided with a bit more concentration.
What Shanto couldn’t do, Dawid Malan did quite well. He didn’t allow the low run-rate or falling wickets at the other end get to him. Instead, Malan picked up crucial boundaries, and formed small but meaningful partnerships to smother Bangladesh’s charge on Wednesday evening. It was his second successive century, and fourth in 16 ODIs, but more importantly, he handed England a difficult win. Malan has done well in his short ODI career, that now there are suggestions that he is getting closer to lock his place in the World Cup squad later in the year.
Team news
Ebadot Hossain and Hasan Mahmud are options if they feel the Dhaka pitch isn’t suited to Mustafizur Rahman.
Bangladesh (probable): 1 Tamim Iqbal (capt), 2 Litton Das, 3 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 4 Shakib Al Hasan, 5 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Afif Hossain, 8 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Taijul Islam, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
England have the likes of Sam Curran, Saqib Mahmood, Rehan Ahmed and Reece Topley up their sleeves but could choose the same XI to seal the ODI series.
England (probable): 1 Jason Roy, 2 Phil Salt, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 James Vince, 5 Jos Buttler (capt, wk), 6 Will Jacks, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Mark Wood
Pitch and conditions
Dew will prompt the team winning the toss to bowl first. It won’t be the worst decision in Dhaka as the ball will still have a bit of variable bounce with turn in the day time. The weather remains dry, but it is getting warm.
Stats and trivia
Quotes
“There was a lot of help for the spinners to be honest. But England possesses a world-class pace attack, which gave them a good combination. It was the same for us, as Taskin bowled well along with the spinners.”
Bangladesh batter Shanto when asked about the pitch condition in Dhaka.
“I said to Jos at the time that it was close. He said he didn’t think so. The guard that I bat on, I thought it was bit outside the line or sliding on with the angle. It was bit closer than I thought, so thankfully he didn’t give it out.”
England batter Malan on surviving an lbw decision when he was on 32 in the first ODI.
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84
