Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat first against Pakistan in the final Super Four match of the 2018 Asia Cup at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
Pakistan team have made only one change in their team for today’s match. Fast bowler Junaid Khan comes in for Mohammad Amir. Bangladesh has made a few changes. While Mominul Haque is replacing Shakib Al Hasan who has fractured his finger, Soumya Sarkar and Rubel Hossain are also playing in today’s match.
After winning the toss, Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza said, ”We would like to bat first. Looks a good wicket to bat on. The last match we lost many wickets in the middle overs but number 6 and 7 batted so pretty well. Hopefully, we get a good start. We have been struggling with the top order but hopefully, we’ll do good in today match. Soumya Sarkar comes back into the side. We have quite a few changes in today match. Shanto is not playing, Rubel Hossain is also back into the team. The big loss is that Shakib is not playing as he fractured his finger, hence Mominul comes in. Fans have been supporting our team right throughout the tournament.”
In this crucial #AsiaCup2018 ‘semi-final’, Bangladesh have won the toss and have opted to bat first
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— ICC (@ICC) September 26, 2018
“The conditions get better later in the night. But if you have wickets in hand, you can chase whatever the target is. I have asked the batsmen to play positive cricket, hopefully, we bat well today. Bangladesh has a good batting line-up. We’ll try to get them out early and chase it down later. Junaid Khan comes in for Mohammad Amir,” Pakistan team captain Sarfraz Ahmed said after the toss.
Playing XI:
Pakistan: Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed(w/c), Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Junaid Khan, Shaheen Afridi
Bangladesh: Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim(w), Mominul Haque, Imrul Kayes, Mahmudullah, Mashrafe Mortaza(c), Mehidy Hasan, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman