Asia Cup final: India to bowl first against Bangladesh

Abu Dhabi: India have won the toss and elected to bowl first against Bangladesh in their summit clash of the ongoing Asia Cup here at Dubai International Stadium on Friday.

Following the toss, India’s stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma said “Big game, runs on the board are important. But I guess fielding first is something that suits our team and we have done that superbly, no reason to change it. I think right from the first game onwards, we knew it would be challenging and a lot of people came here with great form. They came out and delivered that.”
“We’ve played excellent cricket, just one hurdle to cross. We’re ready for it. The sole purpose was to come and qualify for the final first and then come out and perform the way we have. We don’t need to change anything, even if it’s a big occasion,” he added.

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza, on the other hand, said they have played well in the tournament so far and are looking to maintain the momentum in the final match as well.

“Credit goes to the boys, the way they’ve behaved and stood up in the last few matches. We have to play hard today and fight till the last ball. We have a great chance tonight, but you never know, they (India) are the No. 1 side. There’s always pressure in the final. If we can cope with it, we have a good chance,” Mortaza said.

Talking about the team combinations, the Bangladesh skipper confirmed that they have brought in left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam in place of Mominul Haque.

Meanwhile, the Indian side have included all the five players that were rested for the last Super Four match against Afghanistan on Tuesday.

India will look to continue with their dominant performance in the tournament so far and lift the Asia Cup title for the seventh time.

The two squads for the match are as follows:

India playing XI- Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah

Bangladesh playing XI- Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Imrul Kayes, Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Mashrafe Mortaza (c), Nazmul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman.

[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]