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Fact of the day
With thanks to Nasser Hussain … This is England’s last white-ball match until 30 August, when they face New Zealand at Chester-le-Street. This is a wild guess, but I’m going to say it anyway: the conditions may be slightly different.
Teams in full
With the series in the bag, Bangladesh bring on a debutant – Tanvir Islam, who is 26 and a slow left-armer. The pitch in Mirpur is expected to turn square again, although Shakib Al Hasan says it looks better than the one on Sunday.
Bangladesh 1 Litton Das (wkt), 2 Rony Talukdar, 3 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 4 Towhid Hridoy, 5 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 6 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 7 Shamim Hossain, 8 Tanvir Islam, 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Hasan Mahmud, 11 Mustafizur Rahman.
England 1 Phil Salt, 2 Dawid Malan, 3 Moeen Ali, 4 Jos Buttler (capt, wkt), 5 Ben Duckett, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Rehan Ahmed, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Jofra Archer.
Teams in brief
England are unchanged, so they will still have seven bowlers and only four specialist batters (including the keeper). Bangladesh make two changes – details in a minute.
Jos wins toss!
After calling wrong for weeks on end, Jos Buttler gets it right. He acknowledges this with a chuckle and elects to chase – “it gives us the best chance to win”.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the last England men’s game of the winter. It’s the end of a long and winding road that has run from Karachi to Mirpur, 1500 miles away to the east, and from 20 September to today. It all started so long ago that the prime minister was Liz Truss.
In these 25 weeks England have toured five nations, one of them (Pakistan) twice. They have faced nine different opponents and played 32 matches, with one abandoned, so today’s dead rubber will be the 33rd.
Eleven of those games have been against Pakistan, six against Australia, six against Bangladesh if you include today’s, three each against South Africa and New Zealand, and one apiece against Afghanistan, Ireland, Sri Lanka and India. Here are the scores on the doors, just in case any of them have slipped your mind.
In Tests, England won 3-0 in Pakistan and drew 1-1 in New Zealand, by the barest of margins. Total: 4-1.
In ODIs, England lost 0-3 in Australia, lost 1-2 in South Africa, and won 2-1 in Bangladesh. Total: 3-6.
In T20s, England won 4-3 in Pakistan and 2-0 in Australia, and lost 0-2 (so far) in Bangladesh. In between, they only went and won the World Cup (5-1). Total: 11-6.
All told England have won 18 games, lost 13 and had one no-result, as well as the match abandoned. Does that add up to a good winter? More of a mixed one, but in sport, great as it is to be consistent, it’s more important to be remembered. And Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, whose partnerships sealed the World Cup win in 2019, both added an unforgettable feather to their caps. Buttler lifted the T20 World Cup, whereupon Stokes pulled off a 3-0 whitewash in a country where England had only ever won two Tests before.
Today feels like more of a footnote, but you never know. Phil Salt could pull off the massacre he’s been threatening; Buttler, who has had to manage some motley crews, could show his authority; Jofra Archer could maintain his mouthwatering progress on the comeback trail. And Bangladesh could pull off a whitewash of their own.
The first 20 internationals between these sides were all won by England, but since they made the breakthrough in a cliffhanger in Bristol, Bangladesh have looked their opponents in the eye and won nine games out of 21. They already have their first series win over England, thanks to the cool head of Najmul Hossain Shanto: let’s see if they can turn it into a clean sweep.
Play starts at 9am GMT, so do join me around 8.35 for the toss and teams.
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