Photo: Collected
Bangladesh have won the toss and decided to bat first against Afghanistan in their second match of the ongoing tri-nation series in the United Arab Emirates. The side has made three changes to the XI for this do-or-die match.
Having lost by a big margin of 99 runs to Zimbabwe in the first match, the equation before Bangladesh is a difficult one. The Tigers must win today’s match to play in the second round.
The match begins at Sharjah at 5:30pm Bangladesh time on Wednesday.
Parvez Hossain Emon, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Alis Al Islam have come into the Bangladesh side for the fight to reach the final. Rishad Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain Saikat and Nurul Hasan Sohan have been dropped.
Two changes have also been made to the Afghanistan XI. Fazalhaq Farooqi and Zia ur Rahman have been dropped, and Yamin Ahmadzai and Bilal Sami have come in.
A win in this match will keep Bangladesh’s hopes of reaching the final alive. But for that they will also have to manage the difficult arithmetic of net run rate.
The Afghans are in a strong position after beating Zimbabwe by a huge margin of 158 runs. As they are well ahead on net run rate, they will still have a chance of reaching the final even if they lose to Bangladesh.
On the other hand, if Bangladesh can beat Afghanistan by a big margin, they have a chance of overtaking Zimbabwe on net run rate.
Afghanistan are now top of the points table with one win and a net run rate of +3.160. Zimbabwe are second with one win and one loss and a net run rate of -0.590. And Bangladesh, after their defeat in the first match, are third with a net run rate of -1.980.
As they are batting first, Bangladesh will have to win by at least 41 runs.
The two sides have met 22 times in one-day internationals so far, with both winning 11 matches each. But Afghanistan have won five of the last six contests, and all five of those wins have come at Sharjah and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
Bangladesh XI
Towhid Hridoy, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Soumya Sarkar, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Saif Hassan, Parvez Hossain Emon, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Shoriful Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman.
Background
According to a Wisden report of 15 October, this tri-nation one-day series involving Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe began on 17 October; each team plays the others once and the top two sides will meet in the final on 23 October. That report named the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi as the venue for all matches of the series; the information on the venue differs between sources.
In the first match, in reply to Zimbabwe’s 271 for 8 (Craig Ervine 93, Brendan Taylor 81), Bangladesh were bundled out for 172 in 33.4 overs; Brad Evans took 4 for 45, Tanzid Hasan made the highest score of 46 for Bangladesh and Towhid Hridoy led the side as Litton Das was injured – the English edition of Prothom Alo reported this on 18 October.
In the second match on 19 October, in reply to Afghanistan’s 294, Zimbabwe were bowled out for 136 in 38.4 overs; Sediqullah Atal’s 102 off 110 balls was his third one-day international century – Zimbabwe’s The Herald reported this on 20 October.
The numbers
Bangladesh’s recent record against Afghanistan is not comfortable either. In the three-match one-day series held in the United Arab Emirates from 2 to 14 October 2025, Afghanistan beat Bangladesh 3-0 – by 5 wickets in the first match, by 81 runs in the second and by 200 runs in the third – this information is from the Wikipedia page on that series.
