Afghanistan-Bangladesh clash in tonight’s Asia Cup cricket match. Sharjah The 15th Asia Cup Cricket Tournament (20 Over) is underway in Dubai and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. The 6 participating teams are divided into two groups.
Current champions India, Pakistan and Hong Kong are in ‘A’ category and Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are in ‘B’ category. Each team will play the other teams in their division once each. At the end of the league round, the top two teams in both divisions will advance to the Super4 round.
Afghanistan-Bangladesh (Division B) will clash in the 3rd league match in Sharjah tonight. Mohammad Nabi-led Afghanistan stunned former champions Sri Lanka by 8 wickets in their opening league match.
Afghanistan bowled out Sri Lanka for 105 runs and achieved the target in 10.1 overs. In the Afghanistan team, Hazratullah Shazai, Ramanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Mohammad Nabi and Basalhaq Farooqui, Mujeeb Rahman and Rashid Khan are in good condition in bowling.
As far as the Bangladeshi team is concerned, it has been going through a rough patch in recent times. The team lost the ODI and T20I series against Zimbabwe 1–2. All-rounder Shakib Al-Hasan, who did not play in the series against Zimbabwe, is back in the squad. Similarly, Sabir Rahman and Mohammad Naim have also been included in the team. Their arrival will boost the team’s strength.
Notably, this will be the 100th T20 International match for Shakib Al-Hasan, who will take over the captaincy of the T20 team after a long gap. Coming into the field confident of a win in their opening league match, Afghanistan will be eager to taste their 2nd win and enter the next round.
At the same time, Bangladesh will be looking to start the tournament with a win. These two teams have faced each other in 8 Twenty Over Internationals so far. In this, Afghanistan have won 5 matches and Bangladesh have won 3 matches.
Sharjah ground is small. However, it will be difficult to score runs due to the intense heat prevailing there. This pitch lends itself to spin as usual. With both the teams featuring top spinners, this match is expected to be a thrilling affair.
The proposed list of the two teams for the tournament is as follows:-
Afghanistan: Hazratullah Shazai, Ramanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Mohammad Nabi (capt), Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarshai, Naveen ul-Haq, Mujeeb Rahman, Basalhaq Farooqui.
Bangladesh: Mohammad Naim, Anamul Haq, Shakib Al-Hasan (capt), Abib Hussain, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Sabir Rahman, Mehdi Hasan, Mohammad Saibuddin, Nasum Ahmed, Mustabijur Rahman.
The match will start at 7.30 pm IST and will be telecasted live by Star Sports channels.