Afghanistan look to clear Bangladesh hurdle for maiden semi-final spot

Afghanistan vs Bangladesh
June 24, Kingstown, 8:30pm local

Big picture – scrap for the semi-finals

Bangladesh struggled to put up a fight against Australia and India, and they are known to taper off at the end of long tours. They, however, have a point to prove before the tournament ends.

Bangladesh LLWWL (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
Afghanistan WLLWW

In the spotlight – Gulbadin Naib and Shakib Al Hasan

Team news – Bangladesh might bring Taskin or Shoriful back

Bangladesh could go back to Taskin Ahmed or Shoriful Islam to replace Jaker Ali. Afghanistan are likely to go in unchanged at the same venue where they beat Australia.

Bangladesh (probable): 1 Tanzid Hasan, 2 Litton Das (wk), 3 Najmul Hosain Shanto (capt), 4 Towhid Hridoy, 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Jaker Ali/Taskin Ahmed/Shoriful Islam, 8 Rishad Hossain, 9 Mahedi Hasan, 10 Tanzim Hasan, 11 Mustafizur Rahman

Afghanistan (probable): 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Azmatullah Omarzai, 4 Karim Janat, 5 Rashid Khan (capt), 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Gulbadin Naib, 8 Nangeyalia Kharote, 9 Noor Ahmad, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi

Teams batting first have won every game in Arnos Vale, including Bangladesh defending 106 against Nepal. Afghanistan will also have a fair measure of the pitches after their 21-run win against Australia. Weather, however, may not be great as there’s some rain forecast.

“It’s a nice feeling to have that fact that we’re playing the last game as well. You will know exactly what the scenario is and then what’s needed to win. That’s always a nice feeling. But I think with cricket, so many things are thrown in and so many results can go against you or for you. So, we’ve just got to focus on our match against Bangladesh and when all the other matches are played. We’ll know what we need to do and the decisions we need to make.”
Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott

“One thing you’ve got to acknowledge is you can’t fight genetics. You have to have a genetic predisposition to power initially. But power is something that takes a lot of time. If you’re not predisposed to being strong… West Indians don’t have to find power. They’re born with power. We’re not born with power, so we have to do it a different way. We’re looking at the strength and conditioning element, we’re looking at different things of how we can do it a Bangladeshi way.”
Bangladesh assistant coach Nic Pothas