Asia Cup 2018: Assessing the contenders for the tournament

#4 Bangladesh

Recent success away from home is the confidence booster for Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh team is fresh off an ODI series victory against the Windies, away from home. The confidence from that series is exactly what that the team would look to carry into this tournament. Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan are the two key batsmen in the top order and much for the delight of Bangladesh, they have found themselves in a rich vein of form.

Shakib’s form with the bat is a relief for this team and something they would be motivated by, particularly after the long-term finger injury that he sustained. Mushfiqur Rahim is another senior member of this team, but unlike Shakib and Tamim, he’s still searching for runs.

These conditions are ideal and in the very first game of the tournament against Sri Lanka, I’d push him up to number 4 to instil some sort of confidence in him. Mahmudullah is a quality finisher, but he needs to do it against the top sides on a more consistent basis. Liton Das is a stroke-maker up top and he showed glimpses of his quality in the away series against South Africa.

The bowling attack is, without a doubt, so dependent on Mustafizur Rahman. When on song, he’s absolute gold with the new ball and at the tail-end of the innings. However, the youngster hasn’t quite found his mojo after the long-term shoulder injury that he sustained. Mashrafe Mortaza, his bowling partner, is in the twilight of his career but is still a handy bowler, particularly with the new ball.

Like Shakib the batsman, Shakib the bowler is a very vital cog to this setup and he not only needs to contain but has to get wickets at the same time, simply because there is no other strike bowler to get wickets in the middle overs. Rubel Hossain is unpredictable and Mahmudullah isn’t someone who can run oppositions down with his bowling.