Toss: Bangladesh chose to bat v Pakistan
Bangladesh have decided to bat first in their virtual semi-final against Pakistan. Mashrafe Mortaza, Bangladesh’s captain, hoped his top order would turn their form around and put on a total his bowlers would be confident of defending, on what he called a good pitch.
Bangladesh made a handful of changes for this must-win encounter, bringing in Soumya Sarkar, Rubel Hossain and Mominul Haque. The trio replaced Nazmul Islam, Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Shakib al Hasan, who is nursing a broken little finger.
Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed said batting would be a little more challenging under lights, but promised his batsmen would play their natural game in pursuit of a spot in the final against India. Mohammad Amir dropped out, having gone wicketless in his last five ODIs, with Junaid Khan getting his first game of the tournament.
Bangladesh: 1 Liton Das 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Mohammad Mithun, 4 Mominul Haque, 5 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 6 Imrul Kayes, 7 Mahmudullah, 8 Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), 9 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 10 Rubel Hossain, 11 Mustafizur Rahman
Pakistan: 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Asif Ali, 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Junaid Khan, 11 Shaheen Afridi