Bangladesh were thrashed by India in the first match of the Asia Cup T20 2016, Wednesday. A 45-run-defeat in the first game has pushed Bangladesh to a point from where they will have to try and win every game from now.
The Bangla Tigers will next face UAE in their second game of the Asia Cup T20 campaign, Friday at the Shere Bangla National Stadium.
The hosts cannot afford to lose against UAE, as it will be their best opportunity to find somemomentum in this competition.
If Bangladesh end up losing to the UAE, who have won all their qualifying matches ahead of the main stage of Asia Cup 2016, then beating Sri Lanka and Pakistan will be extremely difficult.
Bangladesh will have to work on a number of things ahead of this match against the UAE, especially their fielding. They leaked way too many runs against India, and also dropped the all-important catch of Rohit Sharma, which eventually cost them the match.
The seamers bowled really well against India in the first 10 overs, and they need to repeat a similar kind of performance against UAE as well.
Meanwhile, UAE face Sri Lanka on Thursday at the same venue. Two back-to-back games may take a toll on the players, but this is what they have been waiting for. They defeated the likes of Afghanistan, Oman and Hong Kong to make it to the main stage of the Asia Cup and now they get to play with the big boys of the sub-continent.
Rohan Mustafa, Muhammad Kaleem, Muhammad Usman, Mohammad Naveed and Shaiman Anwar are the players who did really well during the qualifiers. Mustafa, in particular, will be one of the players to watch out for during their Asia Cup campaign.
At this stage, Bangladesh cannot underestimate UAE. They have a talented side and can cause an upset just like they did when they defeated Afghanistan during the qualifiers.
It is expected that Sri Lanka will be a little too tough for the UAE, but they are unlikely to get demoralised if they lose their first game. They are expected to put up a strong fight against Bangladesh.
This is how UAE made it to the main stage of the qualifiers:
| TEAMS | M | W | L | T | Points | NRR |
| UAE | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1.678 |
| Afghanistan | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0.954 |
| Oman | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | -1.222 |
| Hong Kong | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | -1.416 |
Complete Squads: Bangladesh: Mashrafe Mortaza (C), Shakib Al Hasan, Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Mithun, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Al-Amin Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Arafat Sunny, Abu Hider, Nurul Hasan.
UAE: Amjad Javed (C), Ahmed Raza, Fahad Tariq, Farhan Ahmed, Mohammad Naveed, Mohammad Shahzad, Muhammad Kaleem, Muhammad Usman, Swapnil Patil (wk), Qadeer Ahmed, Rohan Mustafa, Saqlain Haider, Shaiman Anwar, Usman Mushtaq, Zaheer Maqsood.
Bangladesh vs UAE complete schedule:
Date: Friday, 26 February.
Time: 7.30 pm IST (7 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m GST, 1.30 p.m. GMT, 8.30 a.m. ET).
Venue: Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka.
TV listings: India: Star Sports 1, Star Sports HD1 (English commentary), Star Sports 3, Star Sports HD3 (Hindi commentary). Sri Lanka: MTV Sports and Star network. UAE: OSN Sports Cricket. Bangladesh: Star network and Channel 9. Pakistan: Geo Super, PTV and Star network.
