'BD may be favourites'

Of the 16 times that the two teams have met, England have won on 13 occasions. They broke the world record for the highest team score in ODIs recently and they have only lost once in their last 10 ODIs.

Bangladesh, on the contrary, are playing just their second ODI series in the last 11 months. And had it not been for the hurriedly arranged Afghanistan series, which saw the hosts only come into their own in the last game to win the series 2-1, the England tour would have been their first.

Despite all these factors England stand-in skipper Jos Buttler named his opponents when asked who the favourites were during the pre-match press conference yesterday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

To that he replied: "Maybe Bangladesh… obviously they are very strong at home in their own conditions and with all their recent successes in the ODIs. We don't mind being the underdogs at all. That's something that probably suits us."

When asked if the visitors were looking for revenge, considering that they lost to Bangladesh in the World Cup in 2015, he said: "Not really. I think if you look through the current squad there weren't that many guys in Australia. Anyway there is no real motivation for revenge. We are fully focused on the task in hand and it's a fantastic challenge for everyone."

Buttler himself though was a member of the squad that went down to Bangladesh in Adelaide. He had scored a fighting 65.

"I probably just regret that day. I think I got into a position where I could have won the game for England. That's disappointing. But we have moved on. That was a long time in the past and things move fast in cricket. We are looking forward to the current competition," he said while reflecting on the World Cup fixture.

Rather than focusing too much on the opponents, Buttler preferred focusing on his own team.

"I think the run up in the warm-up game was great exercise for us. We fielded in the heat during the day which is a good shock to the system and everyone had a good bat. It was great to come away with a win," he said.

"The big strength of England cricket in all formats is that we look at ourselves, our strengths and see what we can do well," he added.

On another note, Buttler described the security provided to the team as 'fantastic'.

"Travel to and fro [the stadium] might have been unfortunately frustrating for the locals with the traffic, but it has been great for us. The security has been fantastic for us," he said.