Toss Bangladesh opt to bat vs Afghanistan
Bangladesh captain Towhid Hridoy chose to bat first against Afghanistan in the last round-robin match of the ODI tri-series also involving Zimbabwe. Bangladesh must beat Afghanistan by at least 41 runs to make it to the final, even as all three teams still have a chance of qualifying for the title match.
Bangladesh handed an ODI debut to fingerspinner Aliss Al Islam, while Mehidy Hasan Miraz returned from viral fever and Parvez Hossain Emon was included as the wicketkeeper. Bangladesh dropped Rishad Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain and Nurul Hasan.
Afghanistan, meanwhile, switched their specialist quicks by resting Fazalhaq Farooqi and Ziaur Rahman, and bringing in Yamin Ahmadzai and Bilal Sami.
Dating back to 1990, Bangladesh have won just one match in eight outings in Sharjah so far. That win came against Afghanistan in 2024 in a series which Bangladesh lost 1-2.
Afghanistan: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Sediqullah Atal, 4 Rahmat Shah (capt), 5 Hashmatullah Shahidi, 6 Azmatullah Omarzai, 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 AM Ghazanfar, 10 Yamin Ahmadzai, 11 Bilal Sami
Bangladesh: 1 Tanzid Hasan, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Saif Hassan, 4 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 5 Towhid Hridoy (capt), 6 Parvez Hossain Emon (wk), 7 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 8 Shoriful Islam, 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Aliss Al Islam, 11 Mustafizur Rahman