With a convincing victory against Papua New Guinea by 84 runs, Bangladesh have ensured their qualification in the super-12 round.
Bangladesh will join the super-12 group 1 as B2. Sri Lanka are the other side to join Bangladesh in this group from A1. In that case, the opponents Bangladesh will have to face in the super-12 round are Sri Lanka, England, West Indies, South Africa and Australia respectively.
While all of these teams are pretty good T20 sides with some talented individuals, the spin attacks of most of these teams are remarkably good. In fact, 6 out of the top 10 bowlers in the ICC T20 ranking for bowlers belong to group-1 and all of them are spinners.
One of them is Shakib al Hasan, and Bangladesh may have to face the other five and some other quality spinners.
The two Sri Lankan specialist spinners Hasaranga and Theekshana are in form right now. Wanindu Hasaranga, the leggie who has picked up 39 wickets in 26 T20I matches has a career economy of just 6.4. He has a well-disguised googly and he tosses it up well.
The other spinner, Maheesh Theekshana can be one of the dark horses in the tournament. With weapons like the carrom ball and googly in his arsenal, the finger spinner can be a real threat. He already has 6 wickets in 2 matches in round-1.
England's Adil Rashid is ranked 4th in the T20 ranking for bowlers and has already played a significant role to win the 2019 World Cup for England. His middle overs will be crucial ones.
West Indies' Hayden Walsh Jr had a pretty good T20 series against Australia this year and will be expected to deliver with his leg-spin.
The current number 1 ranked T20 bowler, Tabraiz Shamsi, is a skilful chinaman bowler who frequently tosses it up and bowls according to the field. He can offer a real test for our middle order batters in the match against South Africa.
Australia's spin attack has the leg-spinners Adam Zampa and Mitchell Swepson and the left-arm spinner Ashton Agar. Maxwell's off-spin might be handy for them as well. Though the Bangladeshi batters have recently faced all of their specialist spinners and won a series by 4-1, they should not be taken lightly at the biggest stage of T20 cricket.
While every other top 10 ranked T20 team has a wrist-spinner in their squad, Bangladesh don't have any, not even in their reserves. As they are about to face wrist-spinners like Shamsi, Adil Rashid, Zampa, Hasaranga and Walsh Jr, the decision of sending Aminul Islam Biplob back to Bangladesh before the tournament is being questioned.
In the T20 World Cup 2016, Bangladesh faced the following wrist spinners - Khawar Ali, Shahid Afridi, Adam Zampa and Ish Sodhi. Their bowling figures against Bangladesh were 1/24, 2/27, 3/23 and 3/21 respectively. How they plan on taking on the wrist-spin challenge in the super-12 round is a matter of real concern.
