After the confirmation of their seats in the last-four stage with Sri Lankans elimination, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will take on each other in the 14th Asia Cup match at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi today (Thursday).
The dead rubber of the Group B will begin at 5:30 pm [Bangladesh time] where the 20-year old Nazmul Hossain Shanto could open for Bangladesh in place of the injured senior opener Tamim Iqbal.
The result of the match is truly unimportant as the tournament has been scheduled in such a way that no matter who finish top of their respective groups, Bangladesh will face India in the first super-four match tomorrow (Friday), while Afghanistan will play Pakistan, reports UNB.
Skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has a chance to become the first Bangladesh bowler to get 250 ODI wickets and overall the 17th fast bowler to reach the milestone as he is only four wickets away to do so.
The statistics shows that the Tigers are ahead of Afghanistan as among their previous five ODI outings Bangladesh got three victories. But Bangladesh have injury issues ahead of the game so resting all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan (finger) and Mushfiqur Rahim (rib) would make sense. There will be no surprise, if Mashrafe go for rest, instead of taking on the stress of back-to-back games for what is essentially a dead rubber.
Bangladesh best XI [probable]: Liton Kumar Das, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mosaddek Hossain, Mohammad Mithun, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (captain), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Rubel Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman.
Afghanistan best XI [probable]: Mohammad Shahzad, Ihsanullah, Rahmat Shah, Asghar Afghan (captain), Hashmatullah Shahidi, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Aftab Alam and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
