Bangladesh young leg spinner Aminul Islam seen bowling on Friday despite sustaining three stitches in his hand and all set to be available in the final of the tri-nation series against Afghanistan on Tuesday. -BCB
Bangladesh is eying to break the jinx of perpetual defeat against Afghanistan as they take on the visitors in the second leg encounter and last group phase match of the ongoing Tri-nation T20 series at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram today.
With both of the team reaching finals at the expense of Zimbabwe, the third team of the tournament, the match is a mere dead rubber but the stake is unarguably high for Bangladesh and also for Afghanistan as it is considered as dress rehearsal for the Tri-series T20 final on September 24.
The Tigers lost their first leg match of the tournament to Afghanistan by 25 runs which made it their four straight loss to Afghans in the format.
They also tasted a humiliating 224-run defeat to the Afghans in one-off Test before the Tri-nation T20 tournament. Bangladesh in fact won just one T20 against Afghanistan out of five matches as they playing against each other and that lone victory came in the 2014 World T20, a tournament that Bangladesh hosted.
While Bangladesh is yet to get their act right when it comes to T20 cricket, Afghanistan had gone from strength to strength with every passing day. Their dominance against Tigers began when they whitewashed them in three-match T20 series in Dehradun, 2018.
During the course of time, Afghanistan spinners looked to have started having a psychological edge over their opponent. Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi played an integral part behind this dominance as they picked 20 wickets among themselves in the last four games.
It seemed Bangladesh batting consultant Neil McKenzie understood the importance of helping his charges in this crisis moment more than anyone else as he was seen spending a long time trying to make them understand of playing in the V-through the mid-off and mid-on region which looked to be the safest way to handle the spin trio of Afghanistan.
What looked to be a major concern for the host batsman was the way they were eager to hit it through the mid-wicket region for some reason or the other apart from trying to come up with some sort of improvisation like the scoop and reverse sweep instead of playing straight through the ground.
Mahmudullah looked to be an exception in the last game as he was more concerned to play straighter than choosing other options on his way to a brilliant half-century against Zimbabwe and it looked to be better option than trying to play all those over ambitious shots.
Bangladesh, however, won their first match against Zimbabwe by three wickets after surviving a scare but their second victory, a 39-run win against Zimbabwe in the double-league tournament was convincing one.
Taking the turn of Afghanistan spinners into consideration going through the mid-wicket region cannot be termed as the safest option and in all probability the batsmen are likely to hit against the spin and that creates more chances for the opponent.
Bangladesh skipper Shakib al Hasan was out trying to play over the top against Zimbabwe and it was the same shot that he tried one after another during his net session and it only implies his intentions against the Afghans.
Other two seniors Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah also looked to be focused on playing the shots according to their strength in the nets under the observation of head coach Russell Domingo and the batting is in the focus ahead of the Afghans clash.
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