Bangladesh will look to change their fate in T20I cricket when they start the Asia Cup 2022 campaign against Afghanistan at Sharjah Cricket Stadium Tuesday.
The passionate Bangladesh cricket supporters were left awestruck seeing Afghanistan crush Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the tournament opener.
But that did not seem to have fazed the Bangladesh team and they remained determined to achieve their goal as they put the finishing touches to their preparation under recently appointed captain Shakib al Hasan.
Shakib was handed the captaincy earlier this month amid Bangladesh’s struggles in the shortest format of the game since the T20 World Cup last year.
After the world event Bangladesh won just two matches out of the 10 played.
The series of defeats include their first ever bilateral T20I series loss to lower-ranked Zimbabwe.
Premier all-rounder Shakib earlier said nothing can be changed overnight but Bangladesh will try to play the format the way it should be played.
The new T20 captain pointed out at scoring at a faster pace, which Bangladesh lacked to remain a vulnerable side in the shortest format.
As Shakib begins his third term as T20 captain, he will also feature in his 100th match in this format as only the third Bangladeshi after former captain Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim.
The star all-rounder will be eyeing to make his landmark game a memorable one.
There is additional stat to inspire captain Shakib.
He is already the highest wicket-taker (121 wickets) in T20 format but batting-wise he finds himself second among the Bangladeshi batters with 2,010 runs, behind Mahmudullah.
He needs just 61 runs to topple the former skipper as highest run-getter of Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh practice game and training module demonstrated the fact that they are focusing more on skill and six hitting unlike the previous time.
Even the batters came up with the explanation that they are able to hit big sixes as the Bangladesh fans blamed them for not playing aggressive brand of cricket in their losing streak in this format.
“Who is the better team will be proved in the field. When we play well in all departments, we normally win the game. Everyone in our team is in a good zone to prove themselves, so we are hopeful of a good result,” said all-rounder Mehedi Hasan Miraz.
“The first match is always important. We are hopeful of making a winning start. We are not focused on who the opponent is, we are just focusing on our game,” he added.
The Afghanistan batters however, had no problem hitting sixes.
Indeed their six hitting skills won them the match against a more powerful Lanka side in the first game.
And the head to head T20 record is led by Afghanistan as they won five matches in nine encounters.
Bangladesh won three while one match was abandoned.
This year the two teams played two matches on Bangladesh soil with both winning one game each.
The game that Bangladesh won this year came on a slow pitch, meaning if the Sharjah wicket remains slow, Bangladesh would have the advantage over Afghan big-hitters.
Probably this is the fact that is keeping Bangladesh calm despite Afghanistan's dangerous T20 form.
Ahead of the tournament, Bangladesh lost some key players like Liton Das, Hasan Mahmud and Nurul Hasan due to injury, especially the loss of Liton created a serious loophole in their opening slot.
The team management has already hinted they will play Anamul Haque and Mohammad Naim as openers even though both are said not to be great accelerators in T20 cricket.
But the team management clarified that they have been given specific roles on how they should play.
The Asia Cup will show the brand of cricket Bangladesh would like to play under the captaincy of Shakib, who looks keen to usher a new T20 era.
The match starts at 8pm Bangladesh Time and will be aired live on Bangladesh Television, Gazi TV, T Sports, Nagorik TV and Star Sports 1.
