News Flash
DHAKA, Sept 23, 2025 (BSS)- Bangladesh are confident to make a giant stride
toward the Asia Cup final by beating India in their second Super Fours game
at Dubai International Cricket Stadium tomorrow (Wednesday).
The match begins at 8 PM (Bangladesh Time). T-sports and Nagorik TV will
telecast the match live.
Bangladesh moved to the Super Fours as Group B runners-up by beating Hong
Kong and Afghanistan. While they couldn't live up to the expectation entirely
initially, they came up as a different team in the Super Fours and put up a
dominating performance to beat Sri Lanka by four wickets, taking a revenge of
their defeat in the first round.
Although the margin of the victory may speak against 'dominating show', there
was no doubt about Bangladesh's victory when their bowlers restricted Sri
Lanka to 168-7 on a placid deck.
The batters then showed sustained aggression to beat them with ease, albeit a
last over drama that saw them lost two wickets and ensured the victory in the
penultimate delivery.
However, a victory against India will help them take a massive stride to the
final, if not guarantee them the place firmly.
Bangladesh will be ahead of India in two sectors-their bowling proved to be
best in the tournament, so far, while the players always remain charged up
mentally ahead of India clash in any kind of sports.
Moreover, if the pitch play to slow even little, which is expected given the
amount of games Dubai, so far, hosted in this week, Bangladesh's chance to
win against India will be doubled.
A victory in the toss will give them further edge. Generally the team,
batting second, wins the game under lights in Dubai and Bangladesh captain
Liton Das, so far, has proved him lucky in the coin toss.
India, however, won all four matches, including twice against archrivals
Pakistan in the tournament. But the stat was not enough to convince
Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons who said that every team still is capable
of beating India.
India of late made Pakistan contest one sided one and held a psychological
edge over the old foes but Bangladesh will be first full ICC nation apart
from Pakistan whom India will meet for the first time in the tournament. And
pundits believe given the current performance, Bangladesh are far better than
Pakistan at this moment.
"Every team has the ability to beat India. The game is played on the day.
It's not about what India have done before. It's about what happens on
Wednesday (tomorrow when Bangladesh will meet them)," Simmons said, further
putting faith in their ability to beat India.
"It's what happens during that three-and-a-half-hour period, and we will try
to play as best as we can and hope to force mistakes in India's armory.
That's the way we win games."
Bangladesh met India in the T20 format 17 times but won just one in 2019 in
Delhi. India won the rest of the 16 matches but Simmons was not concerned by
the record, saying that tomorrow's match will be a fresh game.
In the Asia Cup, the two teams met 15 times with Bangladesh winning just two
and losing 13. India won all two matches in the T20 version of Asia Cup in
2016.
Bangladesh came into the tournament, high on confidence following their three
straight series victory against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Ahead of India clash, captain Liton Das though sustained an injury, he looked
okay to lead the side.
Liton so far proved his tactical nous in the tournament better than his next
counterpart Suryakumar Yadav, which is another area that gives Bangladesh
further boost.
Squad:
Bangladesh: Liton Das (c), Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Parvez Hossain Emon, Saif
Hassan, Towhid Hridoy, Jaker Ali Anik, Shamim Patwari, Nurul Hasan Sohan,
Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan
Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Saifuddin.
India: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma,
Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun
Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana and
Rinku Singh.
