Bangladesh’s opening game in the World Cup will be their 150th one-day international and they could hope for no better way to celebrate than by overcoming India, one of two Asian rivals in group B — the other is Sri Lanka. It might seem a tough ask against a team they have beaten only once in 14 meetings — and that when Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar were rested at Dhaka in December 2004 — but a two-wicket victory over New Zealand in their first warm-up game for this tournament in Barbados should have done wonders for their self-belief.

This, remember, was a New Zealand team who had come off a 3-0 victory over Australia last month and are widely seen as a good outside bet to win the World Cup.

The chief architect of Bangladesh’s surprising win was Mushrafe Mortaza, who took the prize wickets of Lou Vincent and Ross Taylor on his way to figures of four for 44, ran out Brendon McCullum and then blasted two successive sixes off James Franklin to see them home with an over to spare.

Virender Sehwag, who has been struggling at the top of the India order in recent times, will have reason to remember Mortaza, the pace bowler removing him for a duck in that 15-run triumph in Dhaka.

Further motivation for the 200-1 outsiders is likely to come from the memory of their poor performance in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, where they lost five of their group matches — the other one, against West Indies, was halted by rain when delicately poised.

That disappointment came as a blow to a team that had seemed to be making strides at the same competition, in England four years earlier, when their defeat of Pakistan in Northampton made the cricket world sit up and take notice.

Bangladesh have since, famously, gone on to defeat Australia in the NatWest triangular series that served as the prelude to the 2005 Ashes, but almost half of their 33 wins in limited-overs cricket have come against troubled Zimbabwe.

The African side have qualified for the Super Sixes in the past two tournaments, although in South Africa in 2003 it was the refusal of England to play them because of safety fears in the country that eased them through by default — but will struggle to reach the new format of the Super Eights this time. In 2006, their revamped team won only eight of 29 matches.

In a group that contains West Indies, Pakistan and Ireland, they will do well to escape with a single victory even if Sean Williams, the former under19 captain and left-handed batsman who has scored well in the warm-up games against Australia and Bermuda, retains his form.

Bangladesh squad
H Bashar, M Rafique, S Nafees, M Ashraful, A Ahmed, F Reza, M Hossain Jnr, R Saleh , A Razzak, M bin Mortaza, S Hossain, M Rafique, K Mashud, M Rahim, T Baisya

Zimbabwe squad
P Utseya, G Brent, C Chibhabha, E Chigumbura, K Dabengwa, T Duffin, A Ireland, F Kasteni, S Matsikenyeri, C Mpofu, T Mupariwa, E Rainsford, V Sibanda, B Taylor, S Williams