CARDIFF: England will face the side who kick-started their transformation into a major threat in One-day Internationals when the tournament hosts continue their World Cup campaign against Bangladesh in Cardiff on Saturday.

The Tigers condemned Eoin Morgan’s men to a first-round exit at the 2015 edition with a 15-run victory in Adelaide.

At that point there was no longer any way of hiding England’s white-ball woes and, with a home World Cup up next, then ECB director Andrew Strauss was determined the national side’s limited overs form had to improve.

To that end, Peter Moores was sacked as coach, with Strauss bringing in experienced Australian Trevor Bayliss as his replacement.

Since that debacle ‘Down Under’, England have risen to the top of the ODI rankings.

Morgan said on Friday England will not panic as they attempt to get their campaign back on track against Bangladesh following their chastening defeat against Pakistan.

The hosts started their bid to win their first-ever World Cup with a comprehensive 104-run victory against South Africa before they stumbled in their second game, losing by 14 runs.

Morgan said England would not change their aggressive approach in Saturday’s match.

England’s tactics have been based on fearless attacking from their powerful batsmen and they are also aggressive as a bowling unit, boasting the pace of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood.

“All we talked about is sticking to what we do well, looking at our strengths,” he said in his pre-match press conference in the Welsh capital. “Previous to the tournament starting we talked about losing games -- how would we react? What would we counter that with?

“Everything comes back to focusing on ourselves, how we win games of cricket and get the best out of ourselves.”

England rotated their attack at Trent Bridge, bringing in Mark Wood for Liam Plunkett.

Conditions are expected to be more seamer-friendly in Wales, meaning Plunkett could return in place of a spinner.

“We’ll see another day where the wicket is under covers,” Morgan said. “The pitches here have been a bit greener and more seamer-friendly so that’s a potential [option], yeah.”

For Bangladesh, a match at Sophia Gardens sees them back at the scene of one of their greatest triumphs — a 2005 ODI win over Australia, then as now world champions, that is arguably the biggest upset in the history of international cricket.

Mashrafe Mortaza, who played in that stunning five-wicket success, is now Bangladesh’s captain.

“I think they [England] are one of the biggest side in this tournament. It’s not going to be easy, we knew that,” said Mashrafe. “But again, if we can play our best possible cricket, you never know.”

Head to head summary

April 11, 2007 — Bridgetown, England won by four wickets

March 11, 2011 — Chittagong, Bangladesh won by two wickets

March 9, 2015 — Adelaide, Bangladesh won by 15 runs.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2019