As Bangladesh prepare to face Pakistan today at Mirpur, the hosts would like to believe that they are in with a fighting chance of making the Asia Cup final.
Despite going down to a six-wicket loss in their opening match against India and a morale-shattering 32-run defeat at the hands of Afghanistan in their second match, Bangladesh are still not out of the equation mathematically.
Resounding victories over Pakistan today and Sri Lanka in their final round-robin game on Thursday might be enough for the Tigers to progress to the final if other results go their way.
The task will be tough, however, against a resurgent Pakistan side coming into the game on the back of a confidence-boosting one-wicket triumph over India on Sunday.
In addition to a depressing run of recent form, history also weighs heavily against the hosts.
Pakistan have proved to Bangladesh’s arch-nemesis, as a record of just one win for the latter in 31 meetings testifies to. The Tigers’ only win against Pakistan came in the 1999 ICC World Cup in England.
With the odds stacked heavily against the hosts, Bangladesh will draw inspiration from their previous Asia Cup campaign at home two years ago.
Despite losing against Pakistan by 21 runs in the opening game, Bangladesh scripted wins over India and Sri Lanka that enabled them to move into the final.
As for the final itself, the Tigers gave an excellent account of themselves before falling to a narrow two-run defeat.
Even in light of his side’s recent plight, Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim continued to put on a brave face on the eve of the match.
‘Perhaps we are not playing our best cricket, but it will take one match to turn around everything. If we can click in the right time in all three departments I feel that we can win any or both of the remaining two matches,’ Mushfiq told the media during practice on Monday.
‘Definitely, it is pretty hard, and when things are not going in your favour there will be a lot of questions asked from the outside. As a whole team we have not played our best cricket yet. So that is the one concern.
‘It is really disappointing. Being a captain, the biggest challenge is to perform as a team under pressure and stay calm. Hopefully we will do that from [Tuesday],’ said Mushfiq.
As for the likely composition of the playing eleven against Pakistan, the 25-year old skipper said that one of the changes will see Mahmudullah will replace Sohag Gazi. Off-spinner Gazi cut his right thumb while fielding off his own bowling against the Afghans on Saturday.
‘Tough luck to Gazi. Although [Mahmudullah] could not perform with the bat, he has bowled well and hopefully he can contribute if he gets the chance. For the last one-and-a-half years he has been one of our senior players and contributed accordingly,’ he said.
‘There is nothing much else to change. [Pakistan] are a difficult side but not impossible to beat,’ he concluded.
-With New Age input
