Bangladesh will look to level the three-match ODI series by winning the second match against Afghanistan at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram today.

After losing the first ODI due to rain, the second match is now a battle for survival for Bangladesh. If they lose this match, the Tigers will be assured of a series defeat with one match left. Considering the excellent record in the bilateral series at home and the upcoming World Cup, the series loss to Afghanistan will be a big blow for Bangladesh. Bangladesh have lost just two series at home since 2015. Both times, the Tigers lost the series against world champions England.

Bangladesh lost the first match mainly due to batting failure where the team scored only 169 runs for 9 wickets in 43 overs in the match, which was reduced in length due to rain. Most of the batsmen, including Tamim, play bad shots and put themselves in danger. Afghanistan, who lost the one-off Test against Bangladesh by a record 546 runs, played planned cricket keeping in mind the rain issue. The Afghans were focused on not losing wickets. They were 83 for 2 in 21.4 over before rain washed out the match. Afghanistan led by 17 runs under rain.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott was happy with the performance of the team’s spinners. He hopes the team will continue their performance in winning the series with one match left.

“I think it’s good for us to be here after Bangladesh have done a lot of good in ODIs recently. It is always difficult to play against Bangladesh in their country playground. After winning the toss and deciding to bowl first, our fast bowlers didn’t do well with the new ball. But later on, our spinners did well. The skill of our spinners has been showcased. On a wicket where we thought pace bowling would be better than spin,” Trott said.

New captain Liton Das, who came to the press conference before the second ODI, said that Tamim’s absence will not affect the team. Liton is hopeful that the atmosphere of the team will remain the same.

“Tamim bhai was in the previous match, not in this match. I don’t think anything like that will change. Everything will be the same as before. Tamim also gave the advice of ‘team first’ before leaving the team hotel. The elder brother (Tamim) has said one thing, the team comes first. That’s what he said as he walked away,” Liton said.

The captain also added that the first 10 over of the last game was a bit challenging, but we handled it well. But as a batsman, we made a lot of mistakes in the last game. We couldn’t execute our plans. None of the wickets that fell were good balls. I won’t comment on the second game. New days, new challenges and see what happens tomorrow.