Afghanistan's bowling attack 'one of the best' in the world, says Hathurusingha
In the pre-match press conference, Hathurusingha said they are well aware of the challenge posed by the Afghanistan bowlers.
The last time Bangladesh toured Pakistan for an Asia Cup was way back in 2008. Mushfiqur Rahim remains the only surviving member from the XI that played Pakistan. Their opponents on Sunday, Afghanistan, were yet to get ODI status. Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha is back in Pakistan after 25 years but it remains to be seen whether they can make the return memorable.
Bangladesh have their backs against the wall after a big defeat to a depleted Sri Lanka and the net run rate took a hit. The Afghanistan game is a must-win one for them and they need to win by a big margin in order to cover the deficit.
But it will be a herculean task for them, especially for the batters who struggled big time against the Afghanistan bowlers in the ODI series earlier this year.
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In the pre-match press conference, Hathurusingha said they are well aware of the challenge posed by the Afghanistan bowlers.
"Afghanistan's bowling attack is one of the best in the world," he said. "So it's definitely a challenge, but we have played them recently and our players had some success. It all depends on how you perform on the day. We are very much aware of the challenge."
The Afghanistan team is definitely more used to the conditions in Pakistan in terms of experience of playing there. A lot of their players play in the PSL and the conditions suit their spin trio as well.
But Hathurusingha felt the conditions are more or less the same in all Asian countries.
"I don't think [they are ahead]. We're used to it. These are all Asian countries. Back home it was hot when we were training. I don't think it will have any impact on our performance," he said.
The Bangladesh head coach admitted that they didn't play to their potential but said they are confident of bringing their A game against Afghanistan.
"We need to get into the second round before thinking about the final. This game [against Afghanistan] is very important because of what happened in the last game against Sri Lanka."
"We know that it is a must-win game. We certainly didn't play to our potential in the last game and we didn't represent ourselves well enough. But we are confident we will bring our 'A game' against Afghanistan," Hathurusingha added.
