Tigers' Irish test today

In a must-win encounter for Bangladesh, in terms of the gaining confidence ahead of the World Cup, the Tigers take on Ireland in their final warm-up match at the Blacktown Olympic Park in Sydney today. Both the teams lost their previous practice matches.

While Bangladesh went down to Pakistan in a closely-fought contest at the same venue, Ireland were shockingly thumped at the hands of Scotland by a 179 runs. The two teams have met seven times in the past with Bangladesh winning five of those ODIs.

In terms of matches in the World Cups though, both sides have won one apiece. The Irish shocked Bangladesh in 2007, when the Tigers had a topsy-turvy tournament. They beat India and South Africa in that competition, but failed against Ireland in the Super Eights.

They later got their revenge though when a Shakib Al Hasan-led Bangladesh team beat Ireland in the 2011 World Cup.

The match today will be more than just a warm-up game. Bangladesh lost their first three warm-ups and will desperately be looking for a win ahead of the start of the mega event. They will also want to finalise on their playing eleven, an aspect which, by the looks of the squads in the warm-ups is yet to be fixed.

The main quandary revolves around four players: Arafat Sunny, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain and Soumya Sarkar.

While the Tigers traditionally go in with one specialist spinner apart from Shakib Al Hasan, this time around, they might just decide to depend on a host of part-timers. Arafat hasn't performed that well in the warm-ups and the management might just think about including pace-bowling all-rounder Soumya in the side.