Tigers bat in third T20I with hopes of whitewashing world champions

England won the toss and elected to bowl against Bangladesh in the third T20I of the three-match series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur today.

Bangladesh will be eyeing their first-ever series sweep of England after already making history by registering their maiden series win over England as they beat the visitors by six wickets and four wickets in the first two T20Is, respectively. 

With the series already in the bag, Bangladesh opted to hand a debut to left-arm spinner Tanvir Islam. Tanvir, who is a like-for-like replacement for Nasum Ahmed, will be playing his first international game. The Tigers also made another change as Shamim Hossain comes in for Afif Hossain, who has been dropped for the first time in 61 matches as the all-rounder made a record of appearing in most consecutive T20Is for Bangladesh. Afif stands joint-seventh in the all-time list.  

England, meanwhile, named the same squad that featured in the second T20I. 

Jos Buttler's side will be determined to avoid a whitewash, especially considering the reigning ODI and T20I champions had lost only one of 10 games in the shortest format before winning the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.

But now the visitors are desperate to clinch a win in the third game. If they fail to do so, it will be the first time they have been whitewashed since they lost 3-0 to Australia in 2014.

Bangladesh, however, handed England an unwanted record as the Shakib Al Hasan-led side became the only team ever to have beaten a reigning world champion in their first assignment of that particular format since the World Cup. 

Since the tournament's inaugural edition in 2007, eight installments of the T20 World Cup have witnessed six nations who went on to taste glory; with England (2010, 2022) and the West Indies (2012, 2016) winning it twice, while India (2007), Pakistan (2009), Sri Lanka (2014), Australia (2021) winning it once.     

None of the World Cup-winning sides ever lost their first assignment in that particular format. 

Since lifting the T20 World Cup in Australia in November 2022, this was England's first T20I series. England, however, played six ODIs, and five Tests before their tour to Bangladesh earlier this month.  

Playing XI:

Bangladesh: 1 Rony Talukdar, 2 Litton Das (wk), 3 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 5 Towhid Hridoy, 6 Shamim Hossain, 7 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 8 Tanvir Islam, 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Hasan Mahmud, 11 Mustafizur Rahman

England: 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.