Bangladesh searches winning formula against Afghanistan

Time has changed. Over the time in T-20Icricket, Afghanistan now left and Bangladesh in its wake. The irony is that at present Bangladesh has to put a lot of thinking, spend huge energy before facing Afghans in T20I matches! Bangladesh has exercise extra planning before meeting Afghanistan tonight at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium in port-city Chittagong.

The whole scenario gives a clear statement about the Bangladesh team’s degradation and Afghanistan’s progress in the T-20I arena. Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan also agreed that ‘Afghanistan has now become a big team in T-20I. They are consistent in winning matches and higher in the ranking.’

The T-20I statistics also stands in favor of Afghanistan. In the last four encounters against Bangladesh, all the matches were won by Afghanistan. In the ongoing tri-nation T-20I series, Afghanistan won their first match against Bangladesh in a dominating fashion by 25 runs. On Saturday, September 21 evening, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will face off in a dress rehearsal before the final on 24 September at Mirpur Sher-e- Bangla cricket stadium, in Dhaka.

Both of the team will lock horn to get confidence from the last league match before meeting in final. Undoubtedly, whoever wins this last tie will be benefitted and get an extra boost in the final. To get that benefit Bangladesh is desperate to win tonight’s match. Afghanistan showed muscle power in batting and their spin bowling wizardry made them a hard nut to crack in T-20I matches. They won 51 matches in T-20I out of total 74! The winning percentage of Afghanistan in T-20I is amazing, 68.92%! The world record of winning 12 consecutive T-20 matches is now held by Afghanistan.

The main strength of Afghanistan’s bowling lies in their spin department. Three of their spinners Mujib ur Rahman, Mohammed Nabi and Rashid Khan can make life difficult for any batsman in the world. With this wonderful spin attack and truly macho like muscle power batting made Afghanistan a mercury team in T-20I cricket. Their batsmen love to hit sixes rather than taking singles. Already this Afghanistan team broke the record of the highest number of sixes in a single innings at Mirpur Sher –e- Bangla Cricket Stadium. The new record of fifteen sixes at this ground in an innings belongs to Afghanistan. So, if Bangladesh wants to win against the Afghans, they must keep their power hitters subdued as well! In this tri-nation series Afghanistan batsmen looked somewhat uncomfortable against pacers. Keeping that in mind in today’s encounter, Bangladesh team management would like to take an extra pace bowler in playing squad. The match will start at 6.30 pm in Chattogram Zuhur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.

Bangladesh Eleven (probable): Najmul Hossain Shanto, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan(c), Mushfiqur Rahim(w), Mahmudullah, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin, Shafiul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel Hossain.