Bangladesh vs UAE, Asia Cup T20 2016, Match 3 at Dhaka, Preview: Hosts look to recover from opening loss

Bangladesh would look to make a turnaround and earn their opening win of the tournament, when they take on UAE in Match 3 of Asia Cup T20 2016 at Dhaka.

Following an embarrassing 45-run defeat at the hands of India in the opening game of the Asia Cup T20 2016 on Wednesday, Bangladesh would look to make a turnaround and earn their opening win of the tournament, when they take on Asian minnows United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Match 3 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka on Friday. UAE, like Bangladesh, kicked off their campaign with a loss against Sri Lanka on Thursday, too would aim for a turnaround and earn their opening win against the hosts. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Bangladesh vs UAE, Asia Cup T20 2016, Match 3 at Dhaka

Looking the performance in their previous tie, Bangladesh were partly impressive with the ball, as it was Al-Amin Hossain, who was the lone star in their bowling attack, claiming three wickets for 37, while other bowlers contributed partly. Whereas for UAE, it was a better performance than that of Bangladesh as they managed to keep the Lankans on their toes, squeezing out wickets at regular intervals, and it was their skipper as well in the form of Amjad Javed, who too claimed three wickets for 25, while other bowlers too played their part and claiming a couple or a single wicket.

Moving on to the batting performance of both the teams, they failed miserably. For Bangladesh, it was just Sabbir Rahman, who played a healthy knock of 44 off 32 deliveries, including a couple of fours and sixes, while the other batsmen were not as impressive. As far as UAE are concerned, just wicketkeeper-batsman Swapnil Patil, who played an inspiring knock of 37 off 36 deliveries, including three boundaries and a couple of sixes, which kept  UAE in the hunt but they eventually fell short by 14 runs.

Thus, going by the performance of the previous games, changes are most likely to happen for both of the sides, as Bangladesh would look to strengthen their batting line-up and could drop opener Mohammad Mithun and Mahmudullah and bring in Nasir Hossain and Nurul Hasan.  Taskin Ahmed could miss out to Abu Hider in the bowling department. As for UAE, in the batting it could be the whole-top order that could be reshuffled or rotated in the form of Rohan Mustafa, Muhammad Kaleem, Mohammad Shahzad and Mohammad Usman, who failed to fire with the bat. In the bowling department, it could be Qadeer Ahmed and Ahmed Raza, who could well miss out of a spot in the playing XI, and could be replaced by a flood of talented young side on the bench.

With the game being held in Mirpur, a capacity crowd of over 25,000 cannot be ruled out, and with Bangladesh having the upper hand, the support could just pump the home team up in this competition, thus allowing Bangladesh to see this game off in style. However, it would be utterly futile to write UAE off as they were close to cause an upset against Sri Lanka. Bangladesh should well be aware of their threat and must play strong competitive cricket against the minnows to come out on the top.

Squads:

Bangladesh: Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, Sabbir Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mahmudullah, Mashrafe Mortaza (c), Taskin Ahmed, Al-Amin Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Arafat Sunny, Nurul Hasan, Abu Hider.

United Arab Emirates: Rohan Mustafa, Muhammad Kaleem, Mohammad Shahzad, Muhammad Usman, Shaiman Anwar, Swapnil Patil (wk), Saqlain Haider, Amjad Javed (c), Ahmed Raza, Mohammad Naveed, Qadeer Ahmed, Fahad Tariq, Farhan Ahmed, Zaheer Maqsood, Usman Mushtaq.

Time: 19:30 local | 13:30 GMT | 19:00 IST

(Ayush Gupta is a reporter at CricketCountry. A passionate supporter of Manchester United, he idolises Roger Federer and is also a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) maniac. He can be followed on Twitter @Ayush24x7)

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