DHAKA: Host Bangladesh will face Afghans in the first qualifying match of ICC World T20, 2014 at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium at Mirpur of the city on Sunday.

On the opening day, both the teams will play with the threat of elimination hanging over their heads since only one team will qualify from Group A of the World T20`s first round.

The match will start at 3:30pm local time.

Afghanistan have already taken the upper-hand by beating the home side in the Asia Cup earlier this month, and have been talking up this exact phenomenon at every opportunity.

Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan said “When you`re hosting a world tournament and you want to be in the tournament and you`re afraid of getting out of it that is the sort of pressure that is on you. I personally think they [Bangladesh] are facing more pressure than us.”

Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal is looking to minimise the errors. He said “I am sure if we can minimise our mistakes from here, we will be confident as a team, which we need the most on the 16th [of March].”

Bangladesh (possible)
1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Anamul Haque, 3 Shakib Al Hasan, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (capt & wk), 5 Mominul Haque/Sabbir Rahman, 6 Nasir Hossain, 7 Mahmudullah, 8 Farhad Reza/Sohag Gazi, 9 Mashrafe Mortaza/Al-Amin Hossain, 10 Abdur Razzak, 11 Rubel Hossain


Afghanistan (possible)
1 Mohammad Shahzad (wk), 2 Nawroz Mangal, 3 Karim Sadiq, 4 Shafiqullah, 5 Mohammad Nabi (capt), 6 Najibullah Zadran, 7 Gulbadin Naib, 8 Samiullah Shenwari, 9 Dawlat Zadran, 10 Shappoor Zadran, 11 Hamza Hotak

BDST: 2029 HRS, MAR 15, 2014