Bangladesh will face off Afghanistan in their final Group A match of the Asia Cup today when it turned into a do or die encounter for them to seal their place in the ‘Super Four’ stage.
The match will take place in a pretty similar condition of Lahore to Dhaka at the Gaddafi Stadium at 3:30pm (BST).
Bangladesh, will fight in the must win match forgetting the result of their first match result against Sri Lanka when they suffered five wickets defeat and they will play as the favourites with domination over the Afghan.
However, the win will not enough for Bangladesh to confirm their room in the knockout phase when there is a difficult equation would be a huge factor.
It is Afghanistan’s first game in the tournament, as victory for Bangladesh will not guarantee them a spot in the Super Fours as the Afghan will have another lifeline to move into the last fours.
If Bangladesh will win the match, Afghanistan will have to beat Sri Lanka, which by any means will be a tough task for them.
Bangladesh are in the upper-hand over Afghanistan, winning eight and losing six out of their 14 meetings.
However, the anticipation saga to combatting for the ticket of ‘Super Four’, Bangladesh obviously will start as the favourites but they will have to demonstrate better all-round performances to move forward.
Tigers are clear ahead of the Afghanistan in all respects and have every capability to beat Afghanistan.
Bangladesh are upper hands to the Afghans judging the teams strengths, experiences of playing in the international circuit of both the teams and even if we have a look to stats of the individual players.
It’s true, absence of the captain Tamim Iqbal, a world-class opener is a great setback for Bangladesh, as they saw a big blow in the last match against Sri Lanka, when the other experienced opener Litton Das was also absent.
Might be it was one of the big reasons of Bangladesh for suffering humiliating defeat but it was against Sri Lanka, who are the defending champions and six times Asia Cup title holders and also the former world champions.
It’s not of course, Afghanistan are as strong side as Sri Lanka and there is no doubt that the Tigers are clear favourites in the today’s match.
If we have a look to the batting line up to Bangladesh and Afghanistan, despite the absence of Tamim Iqbal, players are in the squad, most of them are better than the those of Afghans.
Afghanistan have their experienced all roundersRahisd Khan and Mohammed Nabi in the team, when they have some promising batters, like Ibrahim Zadran, RahmatullahGurbaz but they are experienced with playing only 17 and 24 matches respectively.
But Bangladesh have Mushfiqur Rahim, played 252 matches, world Number One all- rounder for highest times ShakibAl Hassan played 236 matches, Dashing opener Litton returned to the squad, talented pacer Taskin Ahmed, proven ‘Curter Master Mustafizur Rahman, youngster Hassan Mahmud, Mehidy Hassan Miraz, all are capable to outshine the Afghans top orders bats or specialized bowlers.
Meanwhile, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, who scored 89 runs against Sri Lanka, said, “We are prepared to face all types of bowling and batting so we are all capable to bat in any situation and against any bowling attack. We prepared with whatever resources we have.”
Now, all Tigers’ batters looking to succeed in critical situation games need to keep their cool and will have to be appear with positive approach, they would have to set example translating their talents with impressive performances.
For Afghanistan, it will jot a do or die match when they have another match in hand against Sri Lanka, but for Bangladesh it is very important to stay at least on track to move forward.
Afghanistan are much improved side but have a big gap with the Tigers, as the strength of Bangladesh's line-up and an experienced captain in Shakib Al Hassan will gave them big advantage.