Asia Cup 2018: 5 Key Players for Bangladesh
The 14th edition of the Asia Cup is scheduled to begin on 15th of this month. The tournament will be played in the ODI format this time with the 50-over World Cup scheduled to be held next year. It is to be noted that the previous tournament in 2016 was played in the T20 format ahead of the then World T20.
As far as the history of this tournament is concerned, India has been the most successful team winning the trophy six times, most by any team.
But, if we look at the last three editions, it is Bangladeshi team which has performed outstandingly given their rankings.
They have made it to the finals two out of three times in the presence of teams like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In 2012, they came closest to winning the trophy when they lost to Pakistan in final by only 2 runs. In the last edition too, they beat Sri Lanka and Pakistan in group stage matches and reached the final.
Bangladesh team will be riding high on confidence after their outstanding performance against Windies in the last month.
They won the ODI as well as the T20 series there. They will be happy to carry forward the form into this tournament.
Bangladesh will start their campaign against Sri Lanka which also happens to be the inaugural match of the 14-day long tournament.
Here, in this article, we will take a look at the five key players for Bangladesh whose performances will decide the team's fortune in the tournament.
#1 Tamim Iqbal
A prolific run-scorer, Tamim Iqbal is arguably the greatest batsman Bangladesh has ever produced. He is the first and the only Bangladeshi player to have scored more than ten thousand international runs.
He has been playing for his team for almost a decade and is one of the most experienced players in the side. Much of Bangladesh's success in the recent years can be credited to his aggressive ways of batting at the top of the order.
By giving a solid start as an opening batsman, he has helped his team to score a good, competitive total on most occasions.
He is in a great form as is obvious by his batting brilliance against West Indies in the last series. He smashed two centuries in three matches and was highest run-scorer in that series. Once again, the onus will be on his shoulders to provide a good start to the team.
Tamim Iqbal in ODIs:
Matches - 182, Runs - 6305, Avg. - 36.24, HS - 154, 50/100 - 42/11