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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Morgan debuts as England put into bat


On a gloomy morning, Shakib Al Hasan won an important toss and put England into bat at Lord's. If the coin had fallen the other way there was a fear the conditions could have been too much for Bangladesh to handle, but this result at least gives them a chance to apply some pressure to the home side's top order.

It is less than two weeks since England claimed the World Twenty20 in Barbados, but now they must put those celebrations to one side and focus on the next challenge. The side is much-changed from the unit on duty in West Indies with Andrew Strauss back at the helm and he'll open alongside Alastair Cook with the under-pressure Jonathan Trott at No. 3

As expected Eoin Morgan, the powerful left hander, has been handed his debut in the middle order after a string of exceptional one-day performances in both formats and Ajmal Shahzad, the Yorkshire seamer, is the man to miss out from the 12-man squad. That means a chance to impress on home soil for the exciting Steven Finn.

Bangladesh have packed their side with batting, recalling Mohammad Ashraful to the middle order and putting Mahmudullah, the talented allrounder who impressed during the series in Bangladesh, at No. 8. They have handed a debut to pace bowler Robiul Islam, who found form against England Lions last week with 3 for 72, while Shahadat Hossain returns to the scene of his debut five years ago. He'll hope for better figures than the none for 101 off 12 overs he returned that day.


England 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Ian Bell, 6 Eoin Morgan, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Andeson, 11 Steven Finn


Bangladesh 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Imrul Kayes, 3 Junaid Siddique, 4 Jahurul Islam, 5 Mohammad Ashraful, 6 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 7 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 8 Mahmudullah, 9 Rubiul Islam, 10 Rubel Hossain, 11 Shahadat Hossain

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