Tigers reach Nelson

For the first time in the tour the Tigers have ventured outside Australia as Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and co reached Nelson in New Zealand yesterday morning. They will be facing Scotland at the Saxton Oval here this Thursday.

An extremely small venue compared to the grounds that the Tigers played in Australia; the Oval has a capacity of around 5000. Two matches have been played here during the World Cup and both of them have witnessed high-scoring games.

Ireland chased down West Indies's 304 while Zimbabwe came back from the brink to down the United Arab Emirates after the men from the Gulf posted 285

The one aspect that can perhaps encourage Bangladesh is that the slower bowlers have done well at Nelson in the last two games. Ireland's slow left-armer George Dockrell scalped figures of 3 for 50 against the West Indies; a performance that pegged back the men from the Caribbean. UAE and Zimbabwe depended on their spinners as well during their encounter.

As opposed to their traditional strategy, the Tigers are yet to play a specialist spinner in the side apart from Shakib Al Hasan. They have got two slow left-armers in Taijul Islam and Arafat Sunny in their squad.

After the thumping against Sri Lanka last Thursday, there will be a number of answers that the Tigers would be looking for. The first thing that they will need to address is their fielding which was below-par even by Bangladesh's standards. The missed opportunities on the field hurt them badly.

The other issue that they will need to discuss is whether they actually need eight batsmen in the side. At the moment, every batsman in the team seems to have a comfortable position except for Mominul Haque, who has been juggled around the batting order; something that has clearly affected his confidence levels.

Bangladesh's opening pair will be another concern that the team management will need to discuss.

Tamim Iqbal's forward defence lacked rigidity, while Anamul Haque seemed like a nervous wreck in his last game. From dropping catches and missing run-outs to causing mid-pitch mix-ups, the batsman was nowhere near his groove against Sri Lanka.

If they want to keep their hopes of a quarter-final berth alive, they will have to win the game against Scotland.

Bangladesh are currently placed third in the Pool A with three points.