Tigers bowl first to keep T20 series alive against Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe Captain Crag Ervine won the toss for the second consecutive match and expectedly opted to bat first in the second T20 International against Bangladesh at Harare Sports Club today.

The match turned out to be a ‍‍`do or die‍‍` game for Bangladesh after they lost the first game of the three-match series by 17 runs. Another defeat would force them taste their first ever bilateral T20 series loss to Zimbabwe.

In a bid to keep the series alive, Bangladesh, however, made one change to the side with pacer Hasan Mahmud replacing fellow paceman Taskin Ahmed who put up an unimpressive performance in the first game. Also the other two pacers--Shoriful Islam and Mustafizur-- were more wayward than Taskin but they retained their place for the time being.

However, Hasan Mahmud played his only T20 so far against this Zimbabwe at home in 2020.

Bangladesh won 11 and lost six matches in the 17 matches in shortest format of cricket against Zimbabwe so far.

After winning the first game comprehensively, Zimbabwe had no reason to bring up any changes to the squad. They came up with unchanged squad to keep their winning streak in this format. They so far won sixth straight matches including the victory against Bangladesh in the first game in T20 format, which is their best streak in their history.

 Line Ups:

Bangladesh: Munim Shahriar, Liton Das, Anamul Haque, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan(capt & wk), Mosaddek Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Hasan Mahmud and Mahedi Hasan

Zimbabwe: Regis Chakabva(wk), Craig Ervine(capt), Wesley Madhevere, Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza, Ryan Burl, Milton Shumba, Luke Jongwe, Wellington Masakadza, Richard Ngarava and Tanaka Chivanga.