Asia Cup 2018: Bangladesh's best XI for the Final
Bangladesh, in pursuit of their maiden multinational tournament win, face India who have roadblocked them in four of their eight attempts.
Bangladesh's journey so far in this Asia Cup has been a topsy-turvy one. They began their campaign with a bang as they annihilated Sri Lanka by 137 runs in their first game of the tournament before succumbing to a similar fate against Afghanistan.
In their first super four match, they were totally outplayed by India as they were handed a seven-wicket defeat by India.
In their next match against Afghanistan, Mustafizur's outstanding bowling gave Bangladesh an improbable victory as he defended 8 runs off the last over to keep Bangladesh's hopes alive.
In the next match, their bowlers finally clicked as they successfully defended 240 in a do-or-die encounter against Pakistan. Mustafizur was the pick of the bowlers as his figures read 10-2-43-4. The fact that their win against Pakistan came in the absence of their two most experienced campaigners, Tamim and Shakib, makes it even more moralizing.
The last challenge comes in the form of India, the unbeaten team of the tournament.
Bangladesh do not have the best of records playing against India as they have won only 5 of the 34 ODI games between them. And even in the present scenario, India look quite formidable.
But a final showdown is a different ballgame altogether as pressure can do funny things.
Here is Bangladesh's best playing XI that might lineup against India on September 28.
Openers
Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar
The Bangladeshi openers have had a horrid tournament so far. With the opening partnership never breaching 20, the onus has always been on the middle order to do the bulk of the scoring. With Tamim being ruled out of the tournament, the Bangladeshi opening department has been very fragile.
While Liton has played all the 5 games, he has just 60 runs to his name. Whilst Bangladesh also persisted with Nazmul Hussain Shanto for the opening duties, he never got going as he could score only 20 runs in his 3 outings. Soumya Sarkar, who was later added to the squad, got only a game - against Pakistan where he departed for naught. It should not affect his place in the playing XI considering the fact that it was his first match and none of the top 3 could score in that game.