Pakistan vs Bangladesh Asia Cup 2012 Final Preview

Unlikely teams in Asia Cup Final

Match: Pakistan vs. Bangladesh, Asia Cup Final

Location: Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Date and Time: March 22^nd 08:00 GMT

ld and Asian champions while Sri Lanka had just taken Australia to the end in the Commonwealth bank series down under.

However as the final match of the tournament approaches it is hosts Bangladesh and unpredictable Pakistan who will battle it out for the title of the best cricketing team in Asia. While many consider the fact that Bangladesh reached the final beating India and Sri Lanka an upset, Bangladeshi Captain Mushfiqur Rahim was having none of it. While he did concede that qualifying for the final by beating Sri Lanka was the most incredible day in the history of Bangladesh cricket he said that it was not an upset.

Rahim told the media on the eve of the match that: “When you reach the finals of a tournament with three top teams, and you win twice and play pretty consistently, I don’t think it’s an upset, It was a well-planned and well-executed progress.”

While the bookies have picked Pakistan as the favourites to win the match when the teams take to the field on Thursday, Younis Khan has said that they will not take the Bengali tigers lightly, especially on their home ground and in front of their own fans. The last time Pakistan toured Bangladesh they won every match they played, but they know that this time it’s different. Bangladesh has the best chance they have ever had to win a major tournament and they won’t go down easily.

Younis Khan while addressing a press conference praised the Bangladeshi team and said: “They play good as a group, not individually, If you see the last two games when they won against India and Sri Lanka, they performed as a group. All the bowlers, all the batsmen and all the fielders, they put in their 100%. This is the key thing about their performance.”

He added: “They have some aggressiveness in their body language and that helps to bring about positive results. That is the way an international team should play.”

Bangladesh has no reason to change their team and it is expected that they will field and unchanged team. Meanwhile Pakistan is likely to drop Wahab Riaz, who went for a lot of runs against India, and bring back the specialist wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed.