The mission to reach the semi-final of the ongoing World Cup cricket begins from Southampton today with the match against dark horses Afghanistan.

The game will start at 3:30 pm today with BTV, Gazi TV, Maasranga and Star Sports telecasting the match live.

Hampshire Country Cricket Club is known as cricket’s birthplace and Bangladesh will take on Afghanistan at the Ageas Bowl stadium.

Bangladesh team players have done some serious net practice as last year; Afghanistan gave the Tigers a tough time in two matches played in UAE.

Bangladesh coach, Steve Rhodes has asked the players to keep their calm in meeting the Afghans.

In the seven matches played so far against the Afghans, Bangladesh have won 4.

However, Bangladesh needs to understand the wicket because the Afghans rattled India on this wicket a few days ago.

It’s apparent that spin bowlers will get the advantage here and on such pitches, 270 can be called a safe score. Batting will be hard, that is a given!

At the press conference, Afghan captain, Gulbadin Naib, talked about Bangladesh with veneration.

“We have already played here; the last day was sunny and we played well; hopefully, we will try to replicate that against Bangladesh.”

There may be changes in the Bangladesh side: Mohammad Saifuddin and Mosaddek Hossain, who didn’t play against Australia, may return.

However, the team management will take the decision before the toss and after assessing the overall situation.

The Afghan spin-trio, Nabi, Rashid Khan and Mujib ur Rahman will put Bangladesh batsmen to the test. For the time being, the focus is on the Afghanistan match and once this hurdle is over, the other matches can be taken into consideration.