Afghanistan and Bangladesh will face off each other in the 1st ODI of the series at Sharjah on 6th November.
Match preview:
Afghanistan and Bangladesh will be kicking off the three-match ODI series from tomorrow at Sharjah, the two teams haven’t played much ODI series against each other but the forthcoming series will be an exciting one!
Talking about Afghanistan, the side will be in full-confidence as in their previous assignment they beat South Africa for the very first time in ODI history. The Afghanistan side has been playing a good brand of cricket off-late and yielded some massive achievements including reaching the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2024.
Talking about the upcoming series, Afghanistan will be missing the services of Ibrahim Zadran and Mujeeb ur Rehman, both are recovering from ankle and right phalanx sprain, respectively.
Afghanistan has added Opener Sediqullah Atal and left-arm wrist-spinner Noor Ahmed into their lineup! Rahmanullah Gurbaz will be the key player for Afghanistan in the absence of his counterpart, Zadran.
Gurbaz played incredibly well against South Africa too, giving his side a great start and making an impact from the get go! He was also player of the series against South Africa.
While Afghanistan is a spin-heavy side as they also introduced Allah Ghazanfar, their pacers have been on fleek as well. A lot will be dependent on Fazalhaq Farooqi as the pacer is expected to give a good start to the team with the bowl.
Talking about Bangladesh, they will be playing an ODI series after quite a gap. They last played a series in March and recently they have been playing a lot of Test series. The team enjoyed a great tour in Pakistan but suffered losses against India and South Africa.
Bangladesh have retained Najmal Shanto as their captain. There were reports that Shanto did not want to continue his captaincy stint but maybe the upcoming series will be his last as captain as Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taskin Ahmed are’front-runners’ to take over the captaincy.
The side has recalled Opener Zakir Hasan and left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed while adding the uncapped pacer Nahid Rana. He has played 5 Test matches so far and took 14 wickets with an innings best of 4-44.
Bangladesh will be depending on Mehidy, he has been their best player in red-ball. Now, the side will be hoping if he can replicate the same heroics in white-ball too. Besides him, Towhid Hridoy and Mustafizur Rahman will hold the key for Bengal Tigers.
Pitch and weather report:
Sharjah pitch is famous for being a spin friendly pitch. A captain who wins the toss will look to bat first as the pitch becomes tough to bat on as the time passess. Any score above 260 will be a good score on a pitch like Sharjah.
If we talk about the weather, it looks warm and sunny as of now!
Head-to-head record:
A total of 16 games have been played between these sides. Bangladesh have won 10 games while Afghanistan stood victorious in 6 of these games.
Predictions:
Afghanistan are favourites to win this match as they have been playing a good brand of cricket and will be in confidence after beating South Africa. So, Rashid Khan’s men may stand victorious in the upcoming match.
Where to watch:
Afghanistan: Etisalat
Bangladesh: Toffee
Pakistan: Tapmad
India: FanCode app and website
