Bangladesh's 'do or die' clash against Afghanistan

Bangladesh refuse to give up hopes of playing the Asia Cup Super Four as they vow to hit back by beating Afghanistan in their second and last match of the group phase on Sunday at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

The Tigers have been in a cornered situation following their five-wicket defeat to co-host Sri Lanka in the first game. But in a format where every team will play two matches in the group phase, there is always a chance to go to the next phase. Sri Lanka themselves became the Asia Cup champion last year after losing the first game. 

So regardless of what happens in the next matches, Bangladesh need to first beat Afghanistan to give them a chance to move to the Super Four.

If Bangladesh win the match, Afghanistan must defeat Sri Lanka which, by any means, will be a tough task for them.

The Afghans however will have a psychological edge as they won the recent ODI series by 2-1 last July at the backyard of Bangladesh. The series was marred by Tamim Iqbal's retirement drama but Afghanistan played dominating cricket to be the only second team after England to beat Bangladesh at their own den since 2015.

Their head Jonathan Trott believes they are the "obvious" favourites in Sunday's clash against Bangladesh. Trott was asked in the pre-match press conference who were the favourites in their Asia Cup opener.

"Obviously Afghanistan," Trott answered, pointing at the Afghanistan badge on his jersey upon further questioning.

"Both of our games are going to be tough. But focusing on the Bangladesh game first, we know that they're going to be desperate to win, obviously. And it's our job to match their intensity and also the desire to win," Trott said.

Bangladesh's shaky batting performance against Sri Lanka, however, brought the question to the fore whether the Tigers have the chance to make a comeback.

Najmul Hossain Shanto, who alone scored 89 out of Bangladesh's 164 all out in 42.4 overs, said his side can still make a turnaround from this disastrous start.

"We are not thinking about India and Pakistan now. At the moment we are thinking about the Afghanistan game and we have to prepare after reaching Pakistan and we are hoping to have a good game," Shanto said.

"We won against them in the last T20 series though we didn't do well in the ODIs and we are not thinking about the past. We believe if we can play to our potential we will have a good game against Afghanistan. I think we don't need to think very far, rather we should focus on how to do well against Afghanistan."

However, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan attributed their defeat to the performance of the batters. He lauded the bowlers for fulfilling their roles efficiently despite the meager total on the scoreboard.

According to him, it falls upon the batters to elevate their performance in the second match and revive their aspirations of reaching the Super Four.

Afghanistan lack experience in the batting order but the Tigers have two batters playing for a decade and a half in Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim and the duo needs to play with more responsibility in the absence of regular top-order faces. 

They struggled big time against Sri Lanka's Maheesh Theekshana and it will encourage the likes of Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. It will be a big test for newly appointed captain Shakib and head coach Chandika Hathurusingha. The looming threat of elimination from the Asia Cup hangs heavy over Bangladesh and in order to avoid the embarrassment, they have to be at their absolute best and also depend on the results of other games.