Asia Cup 2022

[Eshen]

Bangladesh is spared from playing against India or Pakistan in group phase.

[godzilla]

Atleast we don't have to go through the shame of being defeated by associate teams

[Zeeshan]

I will just show up on Match 13 on September 11 for Bangladesh versus who...

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Optimists would be saying...

[Zeeshan]

In all seriousness, India vs Pakistan at Dubai would be a cracker. Imagine Kohli meets Babar... it's like a Marvel Avengers moment or something like that..

[Eshen]

IMO, it's high time team management promotes Afif as an opener. He has been groomed as a top order batter during his formative years, but somehow was pushed to middle order when selected for national teams. He is currently in form and technically looks solid for an opening position.

I would keep Parvez Emon on the bench, for Siddons to groom him as a backup option.

Given our dearth of attacking T20 batters (reason Riyad lingers with the team), imo, it's time to bring back Sabbir Rahman.

My XI for Asia Cup would be:

Liton
Afif
Shakib
Mushfiq
Sohan
Sabbir
Mahedi
Saifuddin
Nasum
Hasan Mahmud
Fizz

Bench: Taskin, Shoriful, Yasir, Mosaddek, Emon

[Eshen]

Latest news is that Sohan is unlikely to recover by Asia Cup, may take him another 5-6 weeks. IMO, more reasons to bring back Sabbir.

[Eshen]

Pakistan is first to declare their squad for Asia Cup:

Babar Azam (Captain), Shadab Khan (VC), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Rizwan, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir

[Eshen]

Team India:
Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan

Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel and Deepak Chahar have been named as standbys.

Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the tournament due to an injury.

[wasi90lkv1]

Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh. Group of death. Any 2 teams can go to Super Four.

[Eshen]

As per rumors, 12 players are confirmed to make our Asia Cup squad -

Openers: Emon, Bijoy (WK)

Middle Order: Shakib, Afif

Allrounders: Mosaddek, Mahedi, Saifuddin (with Soumya as standby)

Pacers: Mustafiz, Shoriful, Taskin, Hasan

Spinner: Nasum

For remaining three spots, Naim is likely to return as a backup opener, and Mushfiq in the middle order. For the finisher role, the selectors are debating whether to continue with Riyad or to bring back Sabbir (my feeling is that our wimpy selectors will continue with Riyad for now).

[godzilla]

Let's just hope we win the game against afg. The shame is real this time around

[Night_wolf]

Originally Posted by Eshen
As per rumors, 12 players are confirmed to make our Asia Cup squad -

Openers: Emon, Bijoy (WK)

Middle Order: Shakib, Afif

Allrounders: Mosaddek, Mahedi, Saifuddin (with Soumya as standby)

Pacers: Mustafiz, Shoriful, Taskin, Hasan

Spinner: Nasum

For remaining three spots, Naim is likely to return as a backup opener, and Mushfiq in the middle order. For the finisher role, the selectors are debating whether to continue with Riyad or to bring back Sabbir (my feeling is that our wimpy selectors will continue with Riyad for now).

What a team..the 80windies and 2000s OZ team should be afraid of this team. I am sure AFG and SL are shaking in their pants with IND and PAK players are already in Mandir and masjid praying that SL and AFG gets the job done so they don't have to face this team in T20

[BookFinder]

Can't even officially declare squad till the last minute and always asking for extension.

[Eshen]

Afghanistan have a relatively weak batting side. So far they failed to cross 200 against Ireland on ongoing T20I series played on Belfast. However, their spinners are very likely to be deadly on Sharjah, to compensate for their weak batting.

[Eshen]

Originally Posted by BookFinder
Can't even officially declare squad till the last minute and always asking for extension.

It's not only us, AFG and SL have not declared their squads either.

[Eshen]

Since our selectors can't make up their minds, instead of narrowing down the squad to 15, they declared a 17 member squad:

Anamul Haque, Parvez Hossain Emon, Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mahmudullah, Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasum Ahmed, Mosaddek Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Ebadot Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Nurul Hasan

Little surprised to see Ebadot replacing Shoriful. But it makes sense that they don't want to bet on Shoriful's dilly-dally pace without any shred of intelligence on a big stage.

[Zeeshan]

Bangladesh need to watch Vitality Cup T20 highlights on Youtube just to get a taste for what the standard and level is in international cricket as well as expectation before starting this series.

[NoName]

How did Nurul make the squad? Thought he was ruled out due to injury

[Eshen]

Originally Posted by NoName
How did Nurul make the squad? Thought he was ruled out due to injury

His bandage will be taken off on Aug 21. If he's deemed fit enough, he will tag along the team to UAE. He's unlikely to play group matches against SL or AFG, but may play if BD makes Super 4.

AFG declared their 17 members squad:

[Eshen]

Rumor is that Mushfiq will open with Bijoy against Afghanistan, while Afif will take over #4 slot.

Domingo is on vaccation, Shakib-Sujon seem to be coming up with their own plans. Two practice matches scheduled on Aug 20 and 22, before the team leave for UAE.

[godzilla]

Originally Posted by Eshen
Rumor is that Mushfiq will open with Bijoy against Afghanistan, while Afif will take over #4 slot.

Domingo is on vaccation, Shakib-Sujon seem to be coming up with their own plans. Two practice matches scheduled on Aug 20 and 22, before the team leave for UAE.

Honestly Tamim could have sucked it up till the world cup was done. We really are in dire need of an opener. It took us close to 15 years to find a suitable partner for Tamim, and now we are back to square 1.

[Eshen]

Originally Posted by godzilla
Honestly Tamim could have sucked it up till the world cup was done. We really are in dire need of an opener. It took us close to 15 years to find a suitable partner for Tamim, and now we are back to square 1.

Tamim's slow scoring is liability even in ODI. IMO, he made the right decision to retire from T20I. Now it's Mushfiq's turn to either adapt or leave.

Parvez Emon apparently has been struggling against offies, playing against Bangla Tigers (Mahedi, Naeem). So, definitely not someone you want to bet on, against Mujeeb-Nabi.

One way or the other, looks like we will have to go with makeshift options to open in T20I.

[godzilla]

Originally Posted by Eshen
Tamim's slow scoring is liability even in ODI. IMO, he made the right decision to retire from T20I. Now it's Mushfiq's turn to either adapt or leave.

Parvez Emon apparently has been struggling against offies, playing against Bangla Tigers (Mahedi, Naeem). So, definitely not someone you want to bet on, against Mujeeb-Nabi.

One way or the other, looks like we will have to go with makeshift options to open in T20I.

I mean, it's one thing to have a low scoring rate, it's another thing to have a 'NO' score from your opener and wasted balls. At this point, rather have a low scoring rate than a no-scoring all together. Aside from Liton who grabbed his balls and is playing proper international cricket, there really aren't any proper t20 players in the team (even Shakib and Fiz are ordinary in this format most days).

[Eshen]

Sri Lanka is last to announce their squad:

Dasun Shanaka (c), Danushka Gunathilaka, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Charith Asalanka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Ashen Bandara, Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Jeffrey Vandersay, Praveen Jayawickrama, Chamika Karunaratne, Dilshan Madushanka, Matheesha Pathirana, Nuwanidu Fernando, Dushmantha Chameera, Dinesh Chandimal.

Another bad news for us - Hasan Mahmud picked up injury during fielding practice and out of Asia Cup.

BCB hired Sridharan Sriram as T20I consultant till T20I WC. Rumor is that Domingo will be relieved as the head coach from T20I format. Domingo may resign all together, from all formats.

[Eshen]

Hong Kong qualified as the sixth team for Asia Cup, will be placed in group A alongside India and Pakistan.

Squad:
Nizakat Khan (c), Kinchit Shah, Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Babar Hayat, Aftab Hussain, Ateeq Iqbal, Aizaz Khan, Ehsan Khan, Scott McKechnie, Ghazanfar Mohammad, Yasim Murtaza, Dhananjay Rao, Wajid Shah, Ayush Shukla, Ahan Trivedi, Mohammad Waheed