Sports Reporter :
In-form Bangladesh National Cricket team will take on Afghanistan National Cricket team in their first One Day International (ODI) match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur today. The match starts at 2.30 pm BST (Bangladesh Standard Time).
Earlier, today’s match, Bangladesh faced Afghanistan in two encounters. Of them, Afghanistan won one match, while Bangladesh won the other occasion.Afghanistan beat Bangladesh by 32 runs in the Asia Cup 2014 held at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah on March 1, 2014.
On the other hand, Bangladesh thrashed Afghanistan by 106 runs in the ICC World Cup 2015 held at the Manuka Oval in Canberra of Australia on February 18, 2015.
However, Bangladesh are now emerged as the powerhouse of Asia and the Tigers showed a spectacular performance in recently concluded ICC World Cup. Besides, Bangladesh won their last five ODI series at their home grounds.
Before today’s match, Captain of Bangladesh team Mashrafe Bin Mortaza said, ” We want to play aggressive cricket. We want to keep our performance. We want to finish our Afghan campaign with a happy note. We want to win three matches by playing aggressive cricket.”
He said, ” We do not take Afghanistan lightly. This series is very much important for us. We did not play any international series for a long time. We shall perform in ODIs after that. Besides, Afghanistan is now playing good. So, this series is very important for us.”
Captain of Afghanistan Asghar Stanikzai said, ” All players of our team will try to play well. I hope we shall perform our best. Specially, wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Shahzad is one of our key player. We have also some good bowlers. Specially, we shall depend on Mohammad Nabi.”
He said, ” We have played in Asia Cup and World Cup. We want to gain experience against Bangladesh. As an associate member of ICC we want to play those teams, which have full status of ICC.”
Teams:
Bangladesh (probable) : Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes/Mosadek Hossain, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim (Wicketkeeper), Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (Captain), Shafiul Islam, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed.
Afghanistan (probable) : Mohammad Shahzad (Wicketkeeper), Nawroz Mangal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Stanikzai (Captain), Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Rashid Khan, Mirwais Ashraf, Dawlat Zadran and Karim Janat.
