DHAKA : Bangladesh are confident to make a giant stride toward the Asia Cup final by beating India in their second Super Fours game at Dubai International Cricket Stadium (Wednesday), reports BSS.
The match begins at 8 PM (Bangladesh Time). T-sports and Nagorik TV will telecast the match live.
Bangladesh moved to the Super Fours as Group B runners-up by beating Hong Kong and Afghanistan. While they couldn’t live up to the expectation entirely initially, they came up as a different team in the Super Fours and put up a dominating performance to beat Sri Lanka by four wickets, taking a revenge of their defeat in the first round.
Although the margin of the victory may speak against ‘dominating show’, there was no doubt about Bangladesh’s victory when their bowlers restricted Sri Lanka to 168-7 on a placid deck.
The batters then showed sustained aggression to beat them with ease, albeit a last over drama that saw them lost two wickets and ensured the victory in the penultimate delivery.
However, a victory against India will help them take a massive stride to the final, if not guarantee them the place firmly.
Bangladesh will be ahead of India in two sectors-their bowling proved to be best in the tournament, so far, while the players always remain charged up mentally ahead of India clash in any kind of sports.
Moreover, if the pitch play to slow even little, which is expected given the amount of games Dubai, so far, hosted in this week, Bangladesh’s chance to win against India will be doubled.
A victory in the toss will give them further edge. Generally the team, batting second, wins the game under lights in Dubai and Bangladesh captain Liton Das, so far, has proved him lucky in the coin toss.
India, however, won all four matches, including twice against archrivals Pakistan in the tournament. But the stat was not enough to convince Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons who said that every team still is capable of beating India.
India of late made Pakistan contest one sided one and held a psychological edge over the old foes but Bangladesh will be first full ICC nation apart from Pakistan whom India will meet for the first time in the tournament. And pundits believe given the current performance, Bangladesh are far better than Pakistan at this moment.
“Every team has the ability to beat India. The game is played on the day. It’s not about what India have done before. It’s about what happens on Wednesday (tomorrow when Bangladesh will meet them),” Simmons said, further putting faith in their ability to beat India.
“It’s what happens during that three-and-a-half-hour period, and we will try to play as best as we can and hope to force mistakes in India’s armory. That’s the way we win games.”
Bangladesh met India in the T20 format 17 times but won just one in 2019 in Delhi. India won the rest of the 16 matches but Simmons was not concerned by the record, saying that tomorrow’s match will be a fresh game.
In the Asia Cup, the two teams met 15 times with Bangladesh winning just two and losing 13. India won all two matches in the T20 version of Asia Cup in 2016.
Bangladesh came into the tournament, high on confidence following their three straight series victory against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Ahead of India clash, captain Liton Das though sustained an injury, he looked okay to lead the side.
Liton so far proved his tactical nous in the tournament better than his next counterpart Suryakumar Yadav, which is another area that gives Bangladesh further boost.
Squad:
Bangladesh: Liton Das ©, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Parvez Hossain Emon, Saif Hassan, Towhid Hridoy, Jaker Ali Anik, Shamim Patwari, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Saifuddin. India: Suryakumar Yadav ©, Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana and Rinku Singh.
