Big picture - England favourites despite missing stars
England will hope to keep their white-ball juggernaut rolling in the first of three T20Is against Bangladesh, to be played in Chattogram on Thursday. This is England's first time out in their T20I strip since becoming world champions. Up against them are Bangladesh, who are pretty good in ODIs - though they just lost the series 2-1 to England - but quite a way behind in T20Is. So Bangladesh will start as the underdogs if one considers recent records and overall quality of personnel.
Keeping that in mind, Bangladesh have made a lot of changes to their squad, bringing in five players including newcomer Towhid Hridoy. Shamim Hossain has come in after two years and Rony Talukdar after eight years. While Talukdar has done consistently well in domestic cricket - he was the BPL's second-highest scorer this season - Shamim's return was probably based on one good knock in this season's BPL, the 51-ball 71 for Rangpur Riders against Fortune Barishal.
Bangladesh have also included fast bowler Rejaur Rahman Raja and left-arm spinner Tanvir Islam, perhaps as reward for their BPL performances. Tanvir was the top wicket-taker in the competition with 17 wickets in 12 games at an economy rate of 6.36, while Rejaur picked up 13 wickets in eight games at an economy rate of 8.41.
England have a T20I squad similar to their ODI set-up, with Ben Duckett and Chris Jordan coming in to add firepower. They are, however, without Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Alex Hales and Liam Livingstone, a development that prompted Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha to call it an "experimental" squad.
But he was quick to point out that he would take notes from how England rebuild their team for the upcoming T20 World Cup, to be player next year. That's how good England are at the moment.
Form guide
Bangladesh LLWLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
England WWWWL
In the spotlight
Rony Talukdar has made his international comeback after eight years, when, in 2015, he played a solitary T20I against South Africa. It's a rare occurrence in Bangladesh, where once a player is dropped, it is usually the end for him. Talukdar has scored consistently in domestic cricket, and capped it with a strong run at the BPL this season. He scored 425 runs in 13 innings at a strike rate of 129.17, often giving Riders fast starts.
England would be hoping for Phil Salt to start the T20I series with a big score. He managed only 54 runs in the three ODIs, and that came after he had scored just 37 in two ODIs against Australia in November. His last big show in international cricket was against Pakistan, in a T20I in Lahore in September last year, when he made an unbeaten 88 in 41 balls. It's time to get some runs.
Team news
Hridoy and Talukdar are likely to be in Bangladesh's playing XI, and they are leaning towards three fast bowlers. They usually don't use spinners at the death in T20Is.
Bangladesh (probable): 1 Rony Talukdar, 2 Litton Das, 3 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 5 Towhid Hridoy, 6 Afif Hossain, 7 Nurul Hasan (wk), 8 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Hasan Mahmud, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
England don't have too many players to choose from because of injuries. It is likely that Reece Topley, who is nursing a slight niggle, and Mark Wood will miss out from the first game.
England (probable): 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (capt & wk), 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Ben Duckett, 5 Moeen Ali, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Rehan Ahmed, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Jofra Archer
Pitch and conditions
The first T20I will be played on the same pitch where the third ODI was played earlier in the week. So expect a slow pitch and no real lateral movement. The weather will be dry.
Stats and trivia
This is the first bilateral T20I series between Bangladesh and England. They have played each other only once before in the format, at the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE, where England won by eight wickets.
Bangladesh have played 106 T20Is since Talukdar's solitary appearance in 2015. If he plays on Thursday, he will have the longest gap between T20I appearances, beating Adil Rashid's 92 missed matches between 2009 and 2015.
If picked, Rehan Ahmed will become England's youngest men's player in T20Is as well. He has already set the same record in Tests and ODIs. The previous youngest for England in T20Is was Stuart Broad at 20 years and 65 days.
Quotes
"[England] have a very settled 50-over team. They are experimenting with the T20 team. I don't think the team that won the 2022 World Cup will play in 2024 World Cup. That's why they are trying new players. They are systematically building the team towards that. We can keep an eye on how they do it, as well."
Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha on the England line-up"It's a great opportunity for us to hopefully lay down a marker again as world champions. We haven't played a series since we won that World Cup so it's a challenge for us in these conditions but it's exciting to play here against obviously a very good Bangladesh side." Chris Woakes is expecting a fair challenge on England's return to T20Is
