Bangladesh will host New Zealand for a three-match ODI series as part of their preparation for the ODI World Cup to be held in India in a couple of weeks from now. All three ODIs will be played in Shere Bangla National Stadium, in Dhaka, with the first game starting on September 21, while the second and third games will be played on 23rd and 26th September, respectively.
New Zealand will be coming into the series on the back of a 3-1 series lost in the hands of the defending champions England while they drew the T20 series 2-2 after being 0-2 down. They have rested most of their senior players so as to manage the workload ahead of the mega event. Lockie Ferguson is set to lead the second-string Kiwi team in the absence of their regular skippers Kane Williamson, Tom Latham and Tim Southee.
Rachin Ravindra, Trent Boult, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson and Will Young are among the few players from the World Cup Squads who are playing in this series. Rachin Ravindra had a good all-round series as he scored 93 runs and picked up 7 wickets while Trent Boult, who played ODIS after a year, announced his return with 8 wickets in 2 matches with one fifer to his name. The Kiwis will look to start the series on a positive note.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, will be heading into the series on the back of a sloppy performance in the recently concluded Asia Cup. They lost twice against Sri Lanka and had been thrashed in the hands of Pakistan but managed to beat the champions India in a dead rubber.
Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah make their return to the squads for the first two games while Litton Das will lead Bangladesh in the absence of Shakib Al Hasan, who has been rested to manage the workload ahead of ODI World Cup 2023. Towrid Hridoy was the go-to batter for Bangladesh as he accounted for 158 runs at an average of 31.60 in five games with two half-centuries. Bangla Tigers too will look to start the series with a win.
Meanwhile, let us look at the stats and approaching milestones from the 1st ODI between Bangladesh and New Zealand:
Head-to-Head: In as many as 38 games played between the two teams, New Zealand have dominated the contest with 28 wins while Bangladesh have won 10 games.
In Bangladesh, both have met 13 times with Bangladesh having the upper hand over New Zealand with 8 wins to 5 losses.
50 -Mahmudullah (4950) requires 50 runs to complete 5000 runs in ODIs.
10 -Litton Das (240) needs 10 fours to get to 250 fours in ODIs.
10 -Tamim Iqbal (3990) needs 10 runs to complete 4000 ODI runs at home venue.
126 -Mahmudullah (4874) requires 126 runs to complete 5000 international runs at home.
5 -Trent Boult (195) needs 5 wickets to complete 200 ODI wickets.
183 -Henry Nicholls (1817) needs 183 runs to complete 2000 ODI runs.
6 -Kyle Jamieson (94) needs 6 wickets to complete 100 international wickets.
3 -Adam Milne (97) is three wickets away from reaching 100 international wickets.