Asia Cup 2018: Final, India vs Bangladesh – Trend Analysis

India and Bangladesh will be facing off in the second straight final at an Asia Cup event (ODI/T20I) as the latter defeated Pakistan in a virtual semi-final to push off the possibility of an Indo-Pak final. Bangladesh are yet to win a multinational tournament at this level and would be hoping their wait ends. However, at this stage, it is unlikely to see India lose to Bangladesh as they have lost their key members due to injuries while India have been ruthless with both bat and ball.

The toss will actually be of little importance as the Indian team prefers to chase given the conditions and to avoid the possibility of a collapse while batting first as they don’t want to end up with a below-par total. Bangladesh, on the other hand, have batted first every time they won the toss in this tournament and could continue with the same strategy in the final as well.

India:

India might continue to bowl first if they win the toss given the way their bowling attack eases the pressure on their batting line-up. The likes of Bhuvneshwar, Bumrah, Kuldeep and Chahal have unsettled the oppositions at different stages of the match whenever they played together in this tournament.

The Indian bowling looks good enough to restrict Bangladesh to a total less than 250. Team India won 16 of their last 19 ODI matches while batting second. In this period, they lost both the times they were chasing 300+ total and Tied with Afghanistan in their previous match while chasing 253.

Bangladesh:

Bangladesh might continue to bat first after winning the toss which might not make a difference to India. Mashrafe might end up electing to bat first even in Dubai where the teams have enjoyed batting second under the lights. Bangladesh won seven of the nine ODI matches in 2018 while batting first. In those seven wins, Bangladesh posted 200+ totals and were bowled out under 200 on the other two occasions where they lost.

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