Hum to dube hai sanam, tumko lekar dubenge: Gulbadin Naib’s message to Bangladesh

The 2019 World Cup is almost in its business end with a lot of teams, placed in positions from where they can’t afford to be complacent by any stretch of the imagination. Among them is Bangladesh, currently placed sixth on the points table with five points from six matches. Mashrafe Mortaza and Co thumped South Africa and the Windies in a rather emphatic manner.

However, the losses at the hands of New Zealand, England and Australia have meant that the Tigers’ hopes of playing the semis hang by a thread. Their next match is versus the Afghanistan, who are yet to open their account in the tournament, on June 24, at the Rose Bowl in South Africa.

The Afghans were absolutely excellent versus India and lost the game by a slender margin of 11 runs. Though they tasted a defeat, their confidence would be high after the stellar show while facing Virat Kohli’s men. With three matches left, they would be playing for nothing, but pride.

In the meantime, ahead of Afghanistan’s next match, Gulbadin Naib, the Afghan captain, had some cheeky words for the Tigers. “Hum to dube hai sanam, tumko lekar dubenge (We are already drowning darling, but we’ll take you with us),” Naib said in the pre-match press conference.

The 28-year-old has been impressive in the tournament. After a few poor shows, he promoted himself up the batting order and the decision didn’t backfire. He has also been amongst the wickets and he needs to pull of a decent performance even as a skipper if the Afghans are to roll over Mashrafe’s men.

The Afghan-Tigers rivalry

Afghanistan and Bangladesh have locked horns only seven times in the ODI format. Their first match goes way back to March, 2014 during the Asia Cup when the Afghans shocked the Tigers, winning the match by 32 runs. On head to head count, Bangladesh have a 4-3 lead over their opponents.

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In their last meeting during the 2018 Asia Cup in the UAE, the Tigers emerged victorious by three runs. In World Cup cricket, the teams have only met once back in 2015 when Bangladesh defeated the Afghans by a mammoth margin of 105 runs in Canberra.