Eoin Morgan, Sam Billings, England, Bangladesh, ICC Champions Trophy 2017
Alright lads, time to show what England are made ofGetty Images

England will look to get their ICC Champions Trophy 2017 campaign off to the perfect start when they play Bangladesh in a Group A match at The Oval on Thursday.

The hosts are one of the favourites – indeed they are number one with the bookies – to lift the coveted trophy, so, in order to justify that tag, a perfect start will be necessary.

They certainly have the tools to do that, with Eoin Morgan's men a well-rounded team with both bat and ball.

England will bank on Alex Hales and Jason Roy, who is under a bit of pressure to get runs, to give them a quick start, with Joe Root then coming in and acting as the batsman the rest can play around.

Morgan has struck from of late and is a dangerous hitter, and then, of course, there are England's two biggest limited-overs stars – Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler.

These two are batsmen capable of winning matches on their own, and if the two score runs consistently in the ICC Champions Trophy, then England might very well take the title on home soil.

England's batting is a long one, with Moeen Ali, who notched a couple of really impressive scores against South Africa, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett all capable with the willow.

That batting depth is what makes England so dangerous, because teams, if they are setting a score, do not know what a safe total against this lineup is.

Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh, England, Match 1, CT 2017
Bangladesh will need to play out of their skins to defeat this England teamGetty Images

England, though, could be vulnerable while batting first – although they did pull off both their wins over South Africa in that manner – and that is something Bangladesh will perhaps look to take advantage of.

Having said that, though, Bangladesh really struggled while trying to chase down a total against India, and with that in mind, they might just been keen to take guard first in the middle and set a total up for England to chase.

Bangladesh, who have plenty of match-winners of their own, will also look to that famous win over England in the 2015 World Cup, which knocked the English out of the tournament and sealed their place in the quarterfinals. What that win will give them is belief, belief they can beat this side in a big tournament.

This England side, however, are completely different from the one that went down so tamely, and if they strike form, Bangladesh will struggle to compete.

When and where to watch live

England vs Bangladesh is set to begin at 10.30am BST, 3pm IST, 7.30pm AEDT, 5.30am ET. Live streaming and TV infromation for the Champions Trophy opening match is below.

India: TV: Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1HD (English, Hindi, Tamil). Live Streaming: Hotstar.

 

UK: TV: Sky Sports 2. Live Streaming: Sky Go and Watch Sky Sports.

 

Bangladesh: TV: GTV and Star Sports.

 

USA: TV: Willow TV. Live Streaming: Willow TV Live Online.

 

Australia: TV: Fox Sports. Live Streaming: Foxtel.

 

New Zealand: TV: Sky Sport 1. Live Streaming: Sky Go NZ.

 

South Africa: TV: SuperSport 2. Live Streaming: SuperSport Live Video.

 

Middle East: TV: OSN Sports Cricket. Live Streaming: OSN Play.

 

Singapore: TV: Star Cricket.