Former India player turned commentator Aakash Chopra has picked Bangladesh’s probable playing XI for the 2025 Asia Cup as well. He picked the Bangla Tigers’ seam-bowling department as their biggest strength as well. The 2025 Asia Cup will take place in the UAE from September 9 onwards. However, Bangladesh will begin their Group B engagements with a clash against Hong Kong in Abu Dhabi on September 11 as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “The probable XI for them could be Parvez Hossain with Tanzid Hasan as openers, Litton Das at No. 3, Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain, Jaker Ali, Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Tanzim Hasan and Mustafizur Rahman. I feel they could go with this XI.”
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“Their fast bowling. Believe it or not, in this Bangladesh unit, you say fast bowling has the might. There used to be an era when you used to say that spinners would fall if you shook a tree hard in Dhaka or Mirpur, especially left-arm spinners. Now the focus is on fast bowlers. Taskin Ahmed and Tanzim Hasan Shakib can bowl incredibly well with the new ball. After that, they have Mustafizur Rahman, who can bowl both with the new and old ball. So you have got a very decent and, more importantly, a very experienced fast bowling attack. So fast bowling is their biggest strength,” he further added.
However, Aakash Chopra also picked up the variety in the spin department as another strength for the Bangladesh team heading into the 2025 Asia Cup as well.
“They have variety in spin. I will talk only about variety as a strength because I might talk about inexperience as a weakness. They don’t have Shakib Al Hasan, but Mahedi Hasan is there. So you will get an off-spinner. You will get a leg-spinner in Rishad Hossain, and they have Nasum Ahmed as a left-arm spinner. I would say bowling, in all, can be seen as a bit of a strength. Recent form is outstanding. They have been actually playing really good cricket. They have played well in 2025, won matches and series, both at home and away. When you see the recent form, it seems like things are very good. So that will definitely be considered as one of their strengths,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
