Tigers out to conquer Afghans in opener today

Bangladesh vowed to make a winning start to their T20 Asia Cup journey when they take on Afghanistan in their opening match at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium today (Tuesday).
The match which starts at 8pm (Bangladesh time) will be aired live on Bangladesh Television (BTV), T Sports and Nagorik Television, reports BSS.
Afghanistan had already crushed Sri Lanka by eight wickets in their first game. But Bangladesh are determined to achieve their goal.
"Who is the better team will be proved in the field," said Bangladesh allrounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz, showing the sign of growing confidence.
"When all play well in all departments, we normally win the game. Everyone in our team is in a good zone to prove themselves, so we are hopeful of a good result," he added.
As Shakib began his third term as T20 captain of Bangladesh, he will play his 100th match in this format as only the third batter from the Tigers after former captain Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim.
No doubt, he will try to make his landmark game a memorable one. There is additional stat to inspire captain Shakib also. He is already the highest wicket-taker (121 wickets) of T20 format in the world but batting-wise he is in second spot among the Bangladesh batters with 2010 runs behind Mahmudullah Riyad. He needed just 61 runs to topple the former skipper as the highest run-getter of Bangladesh.

Shakib was given the captaincy after Bangladesh were going through a rough patch in this format following their disappointing T20 World Cup outing last year. After the showcase event they won just two matches out of 10, including their first ever bilateral T20 series loss to Zimbabwe.
Shakib earlier said nothing can be changed overnight but Bangladesh will try to play the format the way it should be played. The new captain indeed pointed out at scoring at faster pace, which Bangladesh lacked to remain a vulnerable side in the shortest format of cricket.
The Bangladesh practice game and training module demonstrated the fact that they are more focusing on skill hitting, six-hitting unlike the previous time. Even the batters came up with the explanation that they are able to hit big sixes as the Bangladesh people blamed them for not playing aggressive brand of cricket following their losing streak in this format.
"The first match is always important," Miraz said. "We are hopeful of making a winning start. We are not focused on who the opponent is, we are just focusing on our game."
The Afghanistan batters, however, had no problem hitting sixes. Indeed their six-hitting skills indeed won them the match against a more powerful Lanka side in the first game. And their T20 record against Bangladesh also is very rich as they won five matches in the nine encounters. Bangladesh won three while one match was abandoned.
In this year, the two teams played two matches on Bangladesh soil with both winning one game each. The game that Bangladesh won this year came in a slower pitch, meaning that if the Sharjah pitch remains slow, Bangladesh would have the advantage over Afghans big hitters.
Ahead of the tournament, Bangladesh lost some of the key players like Liton Das, Hasan Mahmud and Nurul Hasan Sohan due to injury, specially the loss of Liton created a serious setback in their opening slot.