International Cricket: Australia vs. Bangladesh 8/3/21 T20 Cricket Prediction

Australia’s tour of Bangladesh starts tomorrow, Tuesday August 3rd, 2021 at 8:00am EST with the first T20I match in the 5-match series being played in Dhaka.

This series is giving both teams an opportunity to fine tune themselves, understand their strengths and work on their weaknesses ahead of the T20I World Cup. It will be the first time the two sides will meet in T20Is outside of the World Cup and although both sides are missing some of their senior players, Bangladesh as the home side will be looking to hurt the Australian team.

Australia just recently lost 4 -1 to West Indies in a truly remarkable hammering of the side albeit without senior players such as David Warner, Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell to name a few. Mitchell Marsh was the stand out performer on both sides of the wicket along with Mitchell Starc who contributed with the ball but Australia will be hoping for other players to put their hand up and assert themselves in some way to beat the Tigers (Bangladesh). Can this be a turning point for them without their captain Aaron Finch? Can they increase their winning record against Bangladesh which currently sits at 4-0? Time will indeed tell when tomorrow comes.

Bangladesh played Zimbabwe not too long ago and won a hard-earned series 2-1 after successfully chasing down their second-highest total. Mushifiqur Rahim will not play in this series due to his inability to comply to the bubble requirements but will rely heavily on the ever-present Shakib Al Hasan. Captain Mahmudullah presence an experience front and will play a key role in the success of the side alongside Shakib and they will hope that Mustafizur Rahman will be back from injury during the series to add strength to their bowling unit. Will the Tigers take advantage of homecourt? Will they progress in a manner that will have teams looking at them with fear ahead of the World Cup? Tomorrow and the rest of the series will definitely shed some light on these questions.

A 5-match thriller awaits us between two teams that bring such excitement in the middle, Australia with such a dominant core of players while Bangladesh are giant killers on any given day, seems to me this can go down to the wire. I expect Australia to win this first encounter but it will be challenging, nonetheless they will hold their nerve to secure the victory and lead the series.