BAN vs AFG, ICC World Cup 2019: Afghanistan opt to bowl; both teams make two changes

Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib will expect his spinners to weave their magic once again against an in-form Bangladesh batting line-up

Eager to keep the semi-final hopes alive, Mashrafe Mortaza-led Bangladesh will hope of securing a semifinal berth and make the most of the situation starting with a win over the bottom-placed Afghanistan. On the other hand, Afghanistan, who are still in search of their maiden win in the tournament, will be drawing a lot of positive from their previous game against India. Given their experience of the conditions here, captain Gulbadin Naib will expect his spinners to weave their magic once again against an in-form Bangladesh batting line-up. TOSS UPDATE: Afghanistanwon the toss and opted to bowl against Bangladesh at Southampton. Skipper Naib said the pitch looks good for bowling and his team will be wanting to restrict Bangladesh to a chaseable total. Two changes in playing XI - Dawlat and Shenwari come in for Alam and Zazai. Naib: Conditions look good for bowling and we played a game here, so we know the pitch. In the second innings against India, it looked alright throughout and this looks similar. We want to restrict Bangladesh to a chaseable total. We had a good chance to beat India and we're confident that we can do better today. Skipper Mortaza made two changes in the playing XI - Saifuddin and Mosaddek in for Rubel and Sabbir. Mortaza: We like to bat first as it's a used pitch, so want to put runs on the board. The pitch here has been different from the others, has been slow and spun a bit. It's a used pitch as I said and that's why we wanted to bat. Teams: Afghanistan (Playing XI): Gulbadin Naib(c), Samiullah Shinwari, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Ikram Ali Khil(w), Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Mujeeb Ur Rahman Bangladesh (Playing XI): Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim(w), Liton Das, Mahmudullah, Mosaddek Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mehidy Hasan, Mashrafe Mortaza(c), Mustafizur Rahman