Under-19s set off for Asia Cup tomorrow

A 15-member Bangladesh Under-19 team was announced yesterday for the Asia Cup to be held in the UAE. 
The Mehidy Hasan Miraz-led team will leave for Dubai tomorrow to compete in the continental tournament.
The selectors kept faith on the same team picked for the home series against West Indies Under-19, the only change being the inclusion of an additional wicketkeeper-batsman in Prosenjit Das.
Bangladesh have been placed in Group B along with Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Malaysia while India, Pakistan, Nepal and UAE form Group A.
In an unexpected result in the last edition of the tournament in 2012, Bangladesh were knocked out in the group stage after Afghanistan beat them to reach the semifinals, so fans will be eager to see how the young Tigers erase those bitter memories this time around.
The junior team selector Sajjad Ahmed however said that they have done a little homework on Afghanistan under-19s. 
"There are a few older players on whom we did some homework through video analysis. But we are confident that this team will perform well as the conditions there are more or less similar to ours," said Sajjad.
The team however were frustrated with their lack of match practice as they could only play one match out of seven one-dayers against West Indies U-19 side earlier this month.
"Our confidence might have been higher had we played all the games against West Indies. It's unfortunate because we were deprived of a good chance to prepare ourselves in a much better way," said captain Miraz.
The young Tigers aim to at least reach the final. A good showing in the Asia Cup will help them play good cricket in the next World Cup which will also held in the UAE.
Bangladesh will play their first group match against Malaysia on December 28 at the Abu Dhabi Oval 1, where they will also play their next game against Afghanistan on the following day. Bangladesh will play their last group match against Sri Lanka on December 31 at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
The semifinals are slated for January 2 and the final will take place at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on January 4.

SQUAD
Mehidy Hassan Miraz (Captain), Shadman Islam, Najmul Hossain, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Musaddek Hossain , Saeed Sarker, Joyraj Sheik , Mohammed Jasim Uddin (Vice Captain), Abu Hider, Rifat Pradhan, Mustafizur Rahman, Nihad-Uz-Zaman, Rahatul Ferdous Javed, Jubair Hossain and Prosenjit Das.