 Bangladesh will play Pakistan in the fifth game of the Asia Cup after both
the sides were knocked out of the tournament on an uneventful Friday and Saturday,
and this will mean that both the sides will play this game for personal pride.
India and Sri Lanka will contest in the finals on 24th June.
Bangladesh's performance in the tournament has been nothing short of dismal.
The batting has failed the side time after time, game after game, and that has
not allowed the side to express themselves in international games. Sunil Gavaskar
recently wrote in his column that the side is not as bad as they have been playing
but pure statistics tell a lot. And in this series, they not only lost the two
games to India and Sri Lanka, but have also conceded the bonus point, that means
that the losses have been rather abysmally one-sided.
Click for Live Score Card of Bangladesh Vs Pakistan
Given that they have already been knocked out of the tournament, Bangladesh
could try out certain things for this game against Pakistan. For one, they could
probably look at going into the game with a changed batting order. Yes, changing
personnel for one game may not really work, but by shuffling with the order,
Bangladesh may just be able to get the best out of their side.
Apart from the opening batsmen in Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes, the rest
of them can be changed around a lot. A Shakib-al-Hasan can be looked at batting
himself, say at number three where the ball is still coming on to bat, whereas
Mohammad Ashraful could be used as a batsman down the order, at six or
seven when the Batting Powerplay would be on.
On the other hand, Pakistan have had a wretched tournament, in the sense
that they lost both the games, to Sri Lanka and India, and they had gone down
to the wire. Against India, they were on the verge of a win, but the Indians
kept their nerves and won with just a ball to spare. Pakistan did almost everything
right in both the games, one felt, but it was just a plain fact that the better
team won on the day.
Of course, Pakistan will want to make some strides in the fielding department,
where they have struggled. Bangladesh may be an easier opposition, and
the Pakistanis will want to finish off on a high here, but that will not hide
some of the inherent problems that they have had.
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