Bangladesh vs Afghanistan, 1st T20I: Match Preview, Playing XI and broadcast details

Afghanistan nearly thumped Bangladesh in the away one-day international series held recently but two lower middle-order batters from the home team thwarted them in the first match of the series. Hashmatullah Shahidi’s men failed to find the nails after having Bangladesh Tigers in the cage and they eventually lost the series 1-2.

The two Asian sides – both considered teams of tomorrow – are now set to lock horns in a two-match T20 international series starting on Thursday, March 3. Both sides will see a change in leadership with the experienced Mahmudullah and Mohammad Nabi taking over the reins of Bangladesh and Afghanistan, respectively.

Bangladesh, who have lost their last eight T20 internationals and had last beaten a Test-playing nation in shortest format last September, will be banking on Shakib Al Hasan and Liton Das, two of their top performers in the one-day series, to do well against the Afghans in the T20Is.

The Afghans, who have not played a T20 international since the T20 World Cup held in the UAE last October-November, have a much better record in their last eight games with a 5-3 win record and will hope that their batters deliver in the two-game series to continue with their traditional dominance over Bangladesh in the shortest format. Hazratullah Zazai and Rashid Khan will be the names that the visitors will look up to win it for them.

Pitch and Conditions

The pitch at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur near Dhaka where the game will take place is known to be a balanced surface. Teams batting first on this pitch have put up an average score of 123 runs in the last five games. It is expected that the captain winning the toss would prefer to bowl first since the winning percentage of teams batting first here has been low. Both pacers and spinners are likely to gain from this surface.

Bangladesh

Predicted XI: Mahmudullah (c), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das, Mahedi Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Afif Hosain, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Yasir Ali, Nasum Ahmed.

Afghanistan

Predicted XI: Mohammad Nabi (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Fareed Ahmed, Najibullah Zadran, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Hazratullah Zazai, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Karim Janat, Sharafuddin Ashraf

Bangladesh v Afghanistan Head-to-Head

Played – 7| Afghanistan – 4 | Bangladesh – 2 | Tied – 0| NR – 1

Match Details

Venue: Shere Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka

Date & Time: March 3 at 2.30 PM IST and 3 PM local time

Live Streaming: Fancode