Sri Lanka had a horrendous start to their campaign in the Asia Cup 2022 as they suffered an eight-wicket thrashing at the hands of Afghanistan.
They displayed a poor performance with the bat and were bundled out for just 105 runs. They were decent with the ball as they took two wickets but the target was too short for Afghanistan, who chased it down in just 10.1 overs.
Sri Lanka are next slated to play Bangladesh on Thursday (September 1st). However, ahead of the clash skipper Dasun Shanaka made a bold statement and targeted the Shakib Al Hasan-led side by playing mind games.
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Shanaka said that apart from Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib, Bangladesh have no quality bowler and they are an easier opponent than Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan has a world-class bowling attack. We know Fizz (Mustafizur Rahman) is a good bowler. Shakib is a world-class bowler. But apart from them, there is no world-class bowler in the side. So if we compare with Afghanistan, Bangladesh is an easier opponent," Dasun Shanaka had said after Sri Lanka's loss to Afghanistan.
Responding to Shanaka's comments, Bangladesh all-rounder Mehidy Hassan said that he doesn’t want to react to the Sri Lankan skipper’s statement and they would prefer to reply on the field as good and bad are decided on the field.
"I don't want to make a comment that this team is good and this team is bad. I think good and bad are proved in the field. A good team can lose if they play badly on that specific day and similarly a bad team can win if they play a good game of cricket.
''We will meet in the field and at that end of the day the good team will win the match and what I feel is that we have to prove it in the field because if we play well certainly everyone will know who is a good team and who is a bad team so instead of predicting before I think it is important to play well on the field,'' Mehidy Hassan said.
Bangladesh will first face Afghanistan on Tuesday (30th August) in Sharjah and then will lock horns against Sri Lanka on Thursday (1st September). They will be under serious pressure as they are heading into the Asia Cup after having won only 2 out of their 13 matches since the T20 World Cup last year.
