Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore believes England are vulnerable.

Outsiders Bangladesh have provided two of the big shocks in the tournament to date, eliminating India from the group stages and beating South Africa - who came to the Caribbean rated as the world's number one team - last weekend.

England, meanwhile, have lost all three of their matches to Test-class opposition and cannot afford another defeat if they are to maintain realistic hopes of qualification for the semi-finals.

Asked whether he thought Michael Vaughan's team were vulnerable, former Lancashire coach Whatmore said: ''The short answer is yes.

''The top order hasn't been going all that well, one guy got some runs the other day and Kevin Pietersen is a pretty good player.''

The guy that got some runs the other day, Ian Bell, who hit 77 against Australia, made his mark on international cricket with a mountain of Test runs against the Bangladeshis in 2005.

That summer, Bangladesh's status as a major nation was questioned but a famous victory over Australia in Cardiff and a number of wins against top-class opposition since has answered the criticism.

''More or less, yes it has,'' Whatmore added. ''We've gone down the pathway of achieving that.

''Two years ago, people might recall that was the Ashes year when England played unbelievably well to win it.

''Every game, we played a full team, one year later Sri Lanka went there and played against a team with seven players out.

''For us, it was a bloody hard ask, we're learning from it and the team has evolved.

''We've got some different boys in the team since then and, generally, when a team makes changes, it does so to make the team stronger.

''Sometimes, injury enforces changes but we've made them because our team is evolving.

''We would like to think we are on the right track to get the right type of player in.''

Eighteen-year-old wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim, who was on that tour to England, is one of the athletic new breed promoted by Whatmore in recent times.

Left-hand batsmen Tamim Iqbal and Saqibul Hasan form the cornerstone of the batting in a side with an average age of 23.

Whatmore was interviewed for the England job back in 1999 when he was mistakenly welcomed as ''Duncan'' - current coach Duncan Fletcher - by Simon Pack, the then head of the England and Wales Cricket Board's international teams management committee.

Having missed out to Fletcher, however, he has forged a fine reputation in the meantime, which will put him near the top of the list of candidates should high-profile jobs come up in the future.

But he remains focused on the task in hand, which is progressing Bangladesh as far as possible, and they still have a chance of a semi-final place.