Asia Cup : Bangladesh-Pakistan eye winning start to Super Four

Will the pitch in Lahore do as much as the one in Pallekele? It perhaps might not even matter, for Pakistan seem to have an attack that can trouble most batting lineups on most surfaces around the world.

In Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf, they have a troika that Indian batters found hard coming to grips with the other night, and a similar challenge will await Bangladesh and their batters in what will be this edition's first Super Four fixture.

Pakistan couldn't have asked for a better time and place to kickstart this phase of the tournament. They arrive in Lahore after the highs of their bowling effort against India, which effectively gave them the match honours even though rains mandated that the points be split. On top of that, the Wednesday fixture will be their last home game in this Asia Cup, the only other one being their tournament opener against Nepal in Multan, and so it's all the more reason to do well and get an early head start. They would look forward to improvements, chief of them being some runs from Fakhar Zaman who's had a quiet August.

For Bangladesh, that they are here after their deflating start to the tournament is down to their stupendous batting effort against Afghanistan. Their surprise card of sending Mehidy Hasan as an opener in the absence of experience up top worked wonders, with the all-rounder scoring his second ODI hundred. He, though, will be tested a touch more against Pakistan's pace and swing, and more importantly, Bangladesh will be without their other centurion in the game, Najmul Hossain Shanto, who has been ruled out of the tournament.

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