Australia face Bangladesh in must-win contest (Preview)

Australia will look to improve their performance from the opening match when they take on Bangladesh in a must-win Group A contest at The Oval here on Monday.

Australia earned a single point from the first match of their campaign against New Zealand which had to be abandoned due to rain.

The Australian pacers had given a good account of themselves against the Kiwis, particularly Josh Hazlewood who had clinched a six-wicket haul.

But the men from Down Under will aim to improve their batting performance. The Australian batting had seemed a bit shaky in their first match, losing three wickets in nine overs.

Moises Henriques may be given another go at number four but Australia captain Steve Smith may also fancy playing the big-hitting Chris Lynn at the same spot.

The Australians may also to play Adam Zampa in the must-win clash.

The match is expected to be pretty lopsided with Bangladesh having lost 18 of the previous 19 meetings between the two nations since 1990.

Bangladesh, meanwhile, were let down by poor bowling in the tournament opener against hosts England altough the batsmen were in good form.

Bangladesh were defeated by eight wickets despite posting a decent total of 305 runs.

They fell 20-30 runs short against England and will hope to carry their batting momentum against Australia.

The team from the sub-continent looked a bowler short in their line-up against England and may bring pacer Taskin Ahmed into the playing XI.

Bangladesh must win this clash otherwise they will be the first side to be eliminated from the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy.

Squads:

Australia: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Aaron Smith, Pat Cummins, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade(wk), Adam Zampa.

Bangladesh: Mashrafe Mortaza (c), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah, Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain, Mehedi Hasan, Sunzamul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam.

--IANS

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