Mushy third Tiger to 5,000 ODI runs

Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistan captain, took the blame for his team's poor show at the Asia Cup, but said that there's time to rebuild the team for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

A convincing eight-wicket win over Hong Kong in the tournament opener suggested Pakistan were going to be a force. But it was followed by an eight-wicket defeat to India, and then, following a last-over win over Afghanistan in the Super Fours, losses to India and Bangladesh. As a result, Pakistan crashed out of the tournament they have won twice in the past.

"Yes, our performance was very poor. Our batting wasn't good, and we dropped a lot of catches. Our bowling was also patchy, and that's the reason we are out of the tournament," accepted Ahmed, who had a poor run with the bat himself, scoring 68 runs in four innings.

"I still believe we have a lot of talented players in the team. Look at Fakhar Zaman. Though he didn't have a good tournament, we have to back him. Babar Azam too. Imam has, thankfully, done well, but there's also Shadab and Hasan. We have to back them and take them along with us. We have to look at our bench too. We have a pool of players, and by the time the World Cup comes, we'll have a good team," said Ahmed.

"The World Cup is quite some time away, we have other engagements before that. Australia are coming, and then there's New Zealand. So we have to review our performance and see where we are falling short.

"We are losing too many wickets early, and the middle order has had to deal with the new ball, which isn't easy, and hitting quickly in the end isn't easy on these pitches. We'll have to get together and fix these issues."

While Ahmed called the performance 'alarming', he added, "There's no need to press the panic button. Yes, we have made mistakes as a team, and as a captain, I know that I didn't do well. But no need to panic, we need to back the players, look at the positions and see if there are people outside the team who can come in."

Bangladesh are expected to face a stiffer challenge in their do-or-die Asia Cup match against Afghanistan at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore today.

Batting remained the biggest area of concern -- as evidenced by a lacklustre performance in the first game which saw the Tigers get bundled for a meek 164 against a relatively inexperienced Sri Lankan bowling attack. When it comes to Afghanistan, who possess two world-class spinners in Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, they are always in contention to make even the in-form teams work for their runs.

However, it appears that Fazalhaq Farooqi could pose a greater threat for the Tigers' vulnerable top-order. Farooqi, 22, has been lethal against Bangladesh in recent times, having contributed with eight scalps and two three-wicket hauls in their 2-1 away series win against the Tigers in July this year.

Overall, Farooqi had 14 wickets in six games against Bangladesh, at an economy of 4.46. The left-arm seamer not only provided the early breakthrough but also left the Tigers batters perplexed with his lethal full-pitched deliveries swinging both ways.

Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha is well-aware of the Afghan bowling unit's threat, but is optimistic that the Tigers batters will be able to emerge unscathed in the vital Asia Cup match.

"Afghanistan's bowling attack is one the best in the world and definitely it's a challenge. We have played against them recently and our players had some success. So, it all depends on the day how you perform. We are very much aware of the challenge that we are going to face," Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha told the media yesterday.

As the game will be played in Lahore's Gaddafi stadium, where pacers have historically enjoyed a clear edge over spinners in 64 ODIs -- having registered 519 scalps against 239 -- it would be intriguing to see how the Bangladesh batters negotiate someone like Farooqi.

Given the conditions against Afghanistan in store, it will be fascinating to watch if the Bangladesh team management chooses a different team combination.

"We just arrived here and we haven't seen the wicket yet. Definitely if the condition and pitch here is different, we will definitely think about a different combination," Hathurusingha said.

Bangladesh will need to beat Afghanistan to keep their dreams of qualifying for the Super Four stage alive, but they will also need to rely on the net run-rate to progress.

"Before we think about the final, we need to get to the second round. So, this game is very important because of what happened in the last game against Sri Lanka.

"So, we know this is a must-win game for us and we certainly didn't play to our potential in the last game and we didn't represent ourselves well enough. But we are confident to bring our A game against Afghanistan tomorrow [today]," said the Bangladesh coach.

Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha acknowledged the arduous challenge of facing the Afghanistan bowling attack but pointed out that the familiarity of facing the Afghans in recent encounters will help the Tigers' cause. 

Bangladesh take on Afghanistan in Lahore on Sunday in their second and final group-stage fixture of the Asia Cup in a must-win contest in order to stay in contention for qualification to the second round.

The Tigers got their Asia Cup campaign off to a dismal start as they succumbed to a five-wicket loss against Sri Lanka on Thursday. 

"This game is very important because of what happened in the last game against Sri Lanka. We know that it's a must-win game. We certainly didn't play to our potential in the last game and we didn't represent ourselves well enough but we are confident that we will bring our A-game against Afghanistan tomorrow," Hathurusingha told the reporters on Saturday.

Hathurusingha deemed the Afghanistan bowling attack as one of the best in the world as he singled out two of the spinners, expectedly Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, as being world-class.

"The Afghanistan bowling attack is one of the best in the world. It's definitely a challenge but we have played them recently and our players had some success. So it all depends on how you perform on the day. We are very much aware of the challenges that we have to face.

"As I said before, they have one of the best bowling attacks in world cricket, especially in limited-over cricket. They got two world-class spinners and decent seamers. We are well aware of their threat because we played them recently in T20Is and ODIs," he said.

If you are a left-handed top-order Bangladesh batter, you would not like the sight of Afghanistan's left-handed pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi steaming in at you with the new ball.

Just ask former ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal – Bangladesh's highest run-getter in the format – who was tormented and humbled down to the ground by Farooqi in a three-match series in Chattogram in 2022. Farooqi dismissed Tamim in all three matches and the southpaw, who was trapped lbw twice and castled once, had no answer to what Farooqi was dishing out.

Tamim won't be playing the upcoming three-match series against Afghanistan, starting on Wednesday in the UAE, but that does not mean that Farooqi won't be licking his lips as he gears up to wreak havoc when taking on Bangladesh, who have four left-handed top-order batters in their squad, three of whom are expected to play.

Read more

Tigers in a bid to regain lost ODI mojo

Let's look at what Farooqi's key strengths are with the new ball. The 24-year-old is an expert at swinging the ball both ways, particularly at nipping it off the surface. It's not like he can conjure up extravagant swing but he deals expertly at extracting the minimal assistance on offer. Add that up with his ability to keep it accurate and you have a solid option to rattle oppositions in the Powerplay – all of which along with his death-bowling prowess he used to great effect in the T20 World Cup earlier this year when he topped the wicket-takers' charts with 17 wickets.

Now, the current top-order Bangladesh lot – Soumya Sarker, Tanzid Tamim, Najmul Hossain Shanto, and Zakir Hasan - is allergic to whatever Farooqi brings to the table. They are not only prone to being asphyxiated against Farooqi's skillset but are also at risk of an anaphylactic shock, meaning a full-on top-order meltdown while trying to wriggle out of difficult situations – a trademark coping mechanism for the Tigers when under the pump.

In the eight matches he has played against Bangladesh so far, Farooqi has taken 15 wickets at an economy rate of 4.84. He averages 19.33 against the Tigers -- his best against an opposition he played at least three times. And of the 15 wickets, seven were left-handed scalps.

Given the current form of Bangladesh's top-order across formats or their overall batting form in general, the candidates selected for the Afghanistan series do very little to evoke a sense of confidence. One can never know what to expect from Soumya, who has already played international cricket for almost 10 years. Skipper Shanto has been under fire for his abysmal form in the other formats and Zakir's glaring weakness against strict lines and lengths in recent red-ball contests does not help the Tigers either. Tanzid is different in that regard as he shares little of those similar weaknesses but has largely blown hot and cold.

The silver lining to this has most definitely got to be the Sharjah Cricket Ground – the venue for all three ODIs – as it has aided batters in recent contests. In the eight matches played at the venue since 2022, the average first innings score is 300.