Final dress rehearsal today

The Chattogram leg of the ongoing T20I tri-series will come to an end with Bangladesh taking on familiar foes Afghanistan in a dead rubber at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium today.

Despite beating Afghanistan by seven wickets in their match yesterday, Zimbabwe – the third team in the tri-series – was already eliminated after their defeat against Bangladesh on Wednesday. That meant that Afghanistan and Bangladesh were already into the final scheduled to be played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on September 24.

Bangladesh have come out as second best every time they have faced Afghanistan in the ongoing tour. Afghanistan started their tour by humiliating the hosts, handing a 224-run thumping at the same ground in the one-off Test earlier this month. Afghanistan came out on top even in the shorter format as Rashid Khan’s side dominated in their 25-run victory over Bangladesh in their first league match in Mirpur on Sunday.

And although this match will not have any impact on the tournament, both teams will be looking to gain some momentum and fine-tune some aspects of their game before the all-important final.

Shakib Al Hasan’s side have had issues with their batting in the first two matches. And although the Tigers have found some stability in that department in their last match against Zimbabwe -- with Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim playing with authority -- Bangladesh still need to work on their bowling, especially against today’s opponents. Although Afghanistan are not known for their batting prowess, the Tigers have allowed them to score big and then struggled when facing their strong spin bowling. With leg-spinner Aminul Islam, who had an impressive debut against Zimbabwe on Wednesday, will likely miss the match because of an injury and that may open the door for left-arm spinner Taijul Islam. The team management could also experiment with giving Rubel Hossain a game and resting pacer Mustafizur Rahman.

Meanwhile, after Afghanistan’s unbeaten streak was ended by Zimbabwe yesterday, they will want to get back on track by reasserting their dominance before the final.