Asia Cup 2018 Final, India vs. Bangladesh: Predicted Playing XI

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picture credits-

Asian cricket council

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India and Bangladesh will contest the final match of the 14th edition of Asia Cup. Before the start of the tournament, almost everyone predicted the India-Pakistan final. Though India reached the finals at ease, their archrivals Pakistan fumbled in their eventual semi-final match against Bangladesh.

Ever since their encounter at the ICC World Cup 2015, India-Bangladesh rivalry has reached new heights. Their epic clash in the ICC T20 World Cup 2016 will forever remain in the minds of both team’s fans.

India will enter the match as favorites while Bangladesh will enter the game as ‘underdogs.’ Ahead of their final fixture, let us look at the predicted playing XI for both teams.

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Bangladesh:

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 Bangladesh will most likely field the same playing XI that played against Pakistan

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Shakib Al Hasan’s injury is a significant setback for the team. His teammates will miss his invaluable experience in the all-important final game. Though his replacement Mominul failed in the match against Pakistan, he will most likely get a one more chance to display his skills in the limited-overs format.

Soumya Sarkar, who replaced Nazmul Hossain at the top also failed with the bat against Pakistan. However, he corrected his mistakes by staring with his medium pace bowling in the middle overs. As a result, he will retain his place for the final against India.

The only major problem for Bangladesh is the fitness for Mushfiqur Rahim. Though Rahim will most likely play the match, he can give up his wicket-keeping gloves to Liton Das. 

Hence, Bangladesh will most likely field the same playing XI that played against Pakistan.

Probable XI: Liton Das (wk), Soumya Sarkar, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Imrul Kayes, Mahmudullah, Mashrafe Mortaza (c), Mehidy Hasan, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman

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India:

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The key players will return to the playing XI for the final

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India rested their main players in their previous fixture against Afghanistan. Since India had already qualified for the final with one game left in their hand, they rested five of their key players.

Lokesh Rahul and Manish Pandey replaced Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. Siddarth Kaul, Deepak Chahar, and Khaleel Ahmed replaced Bhuvi, Bumrah, and Kuldeep. Now, all those five players who were rested will return to the squad in the place of their replacements.

As a result, the designated openers Rohit and Dhawan will start at the top. Rayudu who opened the batting against Afghanistan will drop to no.3. Besides, Rohit will also return to his captaincy role. 

The only problem of India is the form of MS Dhoni. Since the rest of the batsmen are in good shape, Dhoni’s lean patch has limited chances of affecting the team.

Probable XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma (c), Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah

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