The majority of sides in Cricket World Cup action will have all played plenty of cricket before arriving in Australia and New Zealand. Bangladesh will not.

Their last assignment was a 5-0 series whitewash of Zimbabwe on home soil in December, and despite the resounding nature of the victory, that does not seem like great planning.

They do have two warm-up matches against Pakistan and Ireland in Sydney the week before the tournament, but surely they will be undercooked heading into their opener against Afghanistan in Canberra on February 18?

Bangladesh, captained by veteran seamer Mashrafe Mortaza (main photo), look unlikely qualifiers from Pool A, which also includes host nations Australia and New Zealand.

Since becoming a Test team in 2000, Bangladesh have not improved anywhere near the rate you would have expected. Some talent has progressed, all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan the most notable one, but nowhere near enough.

Mortaza, Shakib, Tamim Iqbal and wicketkeeper and former skipper Mushfiqur Rahim will provide the bulk of the experience in the squad. If Tamim gets going at the top of the batting order, it will be fun to watch.

In 22-year-old left-arm spinner Taijul Islam, Bangladesh have the first bowler ever to take a hat-trick on his ODI debut having done it against Zimbabwe last December, finishing with 4-11.

A month earlier, in only his third Test match, he took a career best 8-39 against Zimbabwe at Mirpur.

Badger Predicts

They should beat Afghanistan and Scotland, but those fixtures will be no walk in the park. They will not qualify for the quarters, however, finishing behind Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England.

Squad

Mashrafe Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah Riaz, Mushfiqur Rahim, Nasir Hossain, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Al-Amin Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Arafat Sunny