World Cup 2015 Match 7 Group A preview: Bangladesh vs Afghanistan

World Cup 2015 Match 7 Group A preview: Bangladesh vs Afghanistan

Date: Feb 17, 2015  Time: 0900 IST
Venue: Canberra

The match tomorrow between Bangladesh and Afghanistan will mark the debut of the newest team in the World cup arena. It is also a match in which in which the Afghans will look to make a winning first impression.

Bangladesh
Bangladesh lost both their warm up games and will look to get a winning start against an almost equally matched Afghanistan team.
They have a new captain in Masrafe bin Mortaza and he will look to start his World cup campaign like the 5 match series against Zimbabwe last year. Bangladesh has a solid batting line with stars like Tamim Iqbal, Mominul Haque, Shakib-al-Hasan and former captain Mushfiqur Rahim.
Their bowling hopes rests with captain Mortaza, Al Amin Hossain, Arafat Sunny and again Shakib. These teams have only met once previously in which Afghanistan got better of Bangladesh by 32 runs in Asia cup 2014.

Afghanistan
Afghanistan will surely try to make their World cup debut a memorable one. They have deserved their place in the big league and now it is up to them to make it count.

They have the firepower in batting department in Asghar Stanikzai, Dawlat Zadran, Captain Mohammad Nabi and Aftab Alam. They have a capable bowling unit which will find the fast Australian pitches. Bowlers like Shapoor Zadran, Mirwias Ashraf, spinners Samiullah Shenwari and Mohammad Nabi will make life difficult for the batsmen.

It is left to be seen whether the Bangladesh team avoid a fate like West Indies and start with a win or the Afghans make their debut with a bang with a win against a test playing nation in their first match.

Last 5 ODIs:
BAN: W W W W W
AFG:  W L L W L

Possible Playing XI:
Bangladesh:
Masrafe Bin Mortaza (c), Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque Bijoy, Mominul Hoque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Al Amin Hossain,Arafat Sunny.

Afghanistan:
Mohammad Nabi (c), Afsar Zazai (wk), Aftab Alam, Asghar Stanikzai, Dawlat Zadran, Mirwais Ashraf, Najibullah Zadran, Nawroz Mangal, Samiullah Shenwari, Shapoor Zadran, Usman Ghani.