Asia Cup 2018: Bangladesh's Challenge is to Recover In Time: Laxman Sivaramakrishnan

Former leg-spinner Sivaramakrishnan was impressed by the performance of the Bangladesh team with their convincing victory against Pakistan. Bangladesh will face off India in the final, and they need to be extremely cautious against the tight side. However, Sivaramakrishnan thinks that the Tigers need to control their emotions after the win against Pakistan in the virtual semi-final.

In fact, Bangladesh has heavily depended on the shoulder of Mushfiqur Rahim. The right-hander is the second highest run-getter in the tournament with 297 runs.

Bangladesh will like to take their best step possible.

“The challenge for Bangladesh ahead of Friday’s title showdown with India is to recover physically and mentally after such an emotional victory. They must overcome the physical demands of a second game in three nights, sandwiched by travel from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. As well as the niggles that a cramping Rahim and skipper Mashrafe Mortaza are carrying. Against a fresher and more rested India, that will not be an easy ask,” Sivaramakrishnan wrote in his column for Times of India.

Moreover, Sivaramakrishnan has some doubts about the middle order batsman of India. The mid-order batsman of ‘Men in Blue’ is having a tough time to score runs. They need to hold their temperament to add some valuable runs as and when required.

“India will, needless to say, put out their strongest XI for the final. They had rightly rested five first-choice players for the game against Afghanistan. Ambati Rayudu did his cause no harm at all with a muscular half-century and KL Rahul oozed class on his return to the ODI side. But question marks continue over the middle-order. They were put under pressure for the first time and while they can point to two dodgy decisions, the fact is India failed to get over the line. Conditions were extremely difficult for batting in the second half in Dubai on Tuesday. With the ball either sitting on the pitch or turning a mile. The two-day gap will come as some respite for the stadium’s Australian curator,” Sivaramakrishnan signed off.

India and Bangladesh will play against each other in the final match of the Asia Cup.