Bangladesh have been climbing the charts of world cricket of late, but their biggest test will lie against the touring South African team, who are one of the best teams in world cricket. The Proteas will play two T20 matches, three ODIs and two Test matches to round off the tour.
After having put up an impressive performance against Asian giants India and Pakistan, Bangladesh will now be eager to come up with a remarkable performance against South Africa, which might not be an easy task.
They start off the tour at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Sunday for the first outing of the two-match T20 series. The South Africans are wary of Bangladesh, who are one of the strongest teams at home and their performances of late just establishes the fact.
Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza has always taken an aggressive approach and one does not see any reason why they will change their game plan against South Africa. Mortaza wants his team to play fearless cricket against the Proteas, making up for an entertaining game, as they are no longer perturbed by a big team.
"We don't have too many T20 specialists," AP quoted Mortaza as saying, "T20 cricket is about guts, freedom and how you use your head ... There is pressure but the only way out is to think about doing well, stay positive and fearless. And that's all we are trying to do."
But Bangladesh need to be on top of their game when they face South Africa, who have some of the best players in the world. One name that immediately crops up is AB de Villiers, who is one of the most dangerous batsman in world cricket and if he gets going neither the Bangladesh spinners nor seamers can contain the South African and Mortaza is aware of it.
"Obviously they have a couple of batsmen like AB de Villiers who can change the game but they are also human beings," said Mortaza.
With players such as Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Nasir Hossain, Shakib al-Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim led by Mortaza, they have the firepower to see off the South African side. They are going to depend on the all-round ability of Shakib al-Hasan and Tamim Iqbal's flying start to a certain extent on Sunday.
The South African side may not have even played against some of the young Bangladesh players, so captain Faf du Plessis feels they can be a dangerous side.
"The nice thing about the Bangladeshi team at the moment is the new guys coming through ... T20 cricket can be dangerous, because it's guys you haven't seen or played against," said Du Plessis.
Where to Watch Live
The first T20 match between Bangladesh and South Africa is scheduled for 1pm local time (12:30pm IST, 8am BST) start on Star Sports 2/HD (English) and Star Sports 3/HD (Hindi) in India with live streaming option on starsports.com.
Bangladesh viewers can follow the game live on BTV and Gazi tv.
South African viewers can watch the action live on Super Sport with the online option here.
Ten Sports will offer live coverage of the game in Pakistan.
