AFG vs BAN Match

6:22 AM IST Spiced up in the desert - The ODI tri-series in the UAE has reached its final stretch and the last league game brings Afghanistan face-to-face with Bangladesh. FYI, this is a single round-robin format, so each team is scheduled to play against each other just once. Afghanistan come in riding a thumping 158-run victory over Zimbabwe, which has sent their net run rate soaring to 3.16 and all but booked their place in the final. Bangladesh are in a far tougher spot. A 99-run defeat at the hands of the Chevrons has left them at the bottom of the heap with a net run rate of -1.98. For them, a simple win will not cut it. They need a colossal one to leapfrog Zimbabwe and snatch the second spot in the title clash. Afghans on a roll, with something to fix - Five wins on the bounce in ODIs, some by huge margins, and Rahmat Shah’s Afghanistan look like a side where every department is humming. The Zimbabwe game showed it. Ibrahim Zadran’s 90 gave the innings its backbone, and Sediqullah Atal, in scintillating form and hungry for big runs, turned that into a 102. There is one soft spot. The middle order wobbled, losing wickets in clusters, and with this much experience in the dressing room, Rahmat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Hasmatullah Shahidi and Mohammad Nabi will want to take more responsibility. Rahmanullah Gurbaz has a different job. He keeps getting starts in the 20s and 30s, and the next step is turning one of them into a big score instead of giving his wicket away out of impatience. It's Rashid's world, and we are just living in it - Hard to argue about that, honestly. There's no doubt about what a champion of a bowler Rashid Khan is. Boasting 230 ODI wickets to his name, he unleashed his bag of tricks and completely choked the Chevrons for runs, with outstanding figures of 4/17. The variations are famous by now, so the surprise isn’t what he bowls. It’s how willing he is to rework his plan for each batter and keep finding a new way in. What makes this Afghan attack even more dangerous is the way it hunts as a pack. Last time out, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Azmatullah Omarzai and Ziaur Rahman found plenty of swing and set the tone with the new ball, and the spin troika of Rashid, Ghazanfar and Nabi then tightened the net with control and discipline and just kept picking wickets at regular intervals. You can have an off day with the ball, or even with the bat. That's the part and parcel of the game, but you cannot afford to have a bad day in the field. Afghanistan didn't, and their sharp fielding backed up the good work their batters and bowlers did quite perfectly to seal a big win. They will look to keep continuing this good work, but the challenge is to sustain this level of intensity in such challenging warm conditions. Tigers looking to roar back - A lot went wrong from Bangladesh's perspective in their previous game, against Zimbabwe. The major issue, which is also a recurring one, is how their batting unit is getting consumed under pressure time and again. They slipped from 47/0 to getting bowled out on 172 with nobody at least willing to spend time out there. And that's a serious drawback they will have to overcome this time around. Tanzid Hasan has been Bangladesh’s one reliable constant with the bat in ODIs this year. The opener scored 46 in the last game and leads the 2026 run charts for his side with 532 from 13 innings, including a hundred and five fifties. Towhid Hridoy is next best with 446, and the drop-off after that is steep. Soumya Sarkar has just one fifty-plus score in his last ten innings, and Najmul Hossain Shanto and Saif Hassan have also been up and down. Das' injury scare - Bangladesh have taken a heavy blow. Litton Das has been ruled out of the series with a hip-joint injury, and the scare that began with a scan on Monday, October 19, has ended in the worst way for the tourists. A BCB medical official had offered a ray of hope earlier, saying Das was being closely monitored and that the reports showed nothing significantly bad. Hope, as it turns out, was not a green light. The timing makes it sting. Das was named captain before the series and arrived in glorious touch, with a 53 and a 102 in the one-off Test against the same opposition a couple of weeks back. Bangladesh missed him badly in the previous match, and now they must plan without him for the rest of the series. Meanwhile, there is some good news for Bangladesh. Mehidy Hasan Miraz, one of their star campaigners, missed the series opener with a fever but looks set to be available for this match. His return would give the lower-middle order a genuine batting and bowling option, backed by plenty of experience, and he could replace Rishad who was a bit too expensive the other day. A comfort in pace - It isn't all doom and gloom for Bangladesh, because the pacers gave them plenty to cheer against Zimbabwe. Taskin Ahmed set the tone with a three-wicket haul, getting swing and bounce out of the new ball. Mustafizur Rahman finished wicketless but kept things tight with his cutters and the usual control that he brings on, while Shoriful Islam added discipline and a couple of wickets too. The spin department is a different story. Saif played the golden arm with a couple of crucial wickets, but Rishad was too expensive. That leaves a selection puzzle. Aliss Al Islam has been catching eyes in domestic cricket, so this could be his moment. Or Bangladesh could reshuffle the pace pack and bring in Hasan Mahmud, who took a five-for against Afghanistan in the Test and a six-for in Darwin against Australia before that. Team form (Last 5 completed ODIs, recent first) - AFG - WWWWW | BAN - LWLLL. All level - On paper, these two could hardly be closer. Afghanistan have been the stronger side of late and Bangladesh have their share of problems, yet the ODI head-to-head is still level at 11-11. The recent past tells a different story, though. When they last met in Abu Dhabi, in October 2025, Afghanistan swept the bilateral series 3-0, and Bangladesh have not beaten them in this format since November 2024. That is a streak they will be itching to end this time around.