Dhaka: Bangladesh will face Afghanistan in the 3rd and last ODI of their first-ever bilateral cricket series at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) in Mirpur on Saturday.  

The series decider day-night match will start at 2:30pm. State-run television BTV and satellite channel Gtv will telecast the match live.  

Bangladesh limited-over captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza admitted the side is under a bit pressure ahead of the match as the series result tied in 1-1.  

‘Pressure is obviously on both sides, this being an international match. It doesn’t come to our mind that they (Afghans) are an Associate nation. In fact, they are a strong team,’ he said.

Mashrafe was speaking at the pre-match press conference at SBNCS on Friday.  

If Afghanistan can manage a win that will lead them to series victory, it will be their first against any team ranked higher than Zimbabwe in ODIs.

Bangladesh took the series lead with a seven run victory in the 1st match on Sunday (September 25) while ICC associate Afghanistan leveled the margin upsetting the Test playing hosts by two wickets on Wednesday (September 28), both held at SBNCS.  

Earlier, in their previous two ODI meetings, Bangladesh defeated Afghanistan by 105 runs in the World Cup 2015, but lost by 32 runs in the first instance in Asia Cup in 2014.

Bangladesh brought a change in the in the 14-man squad for the 3rd ODI with the inclusion of Mosharraf Hossain in the place of Rubel Hossain, but it is still uncertain whether he will replace Taijul Islam in the best XI or not.  

It is also likely that Imrul Kayes could return to the playing XI replacing out-of-form Soumya Sarkar.

Bangladesh squad (probable): Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes/Soumya Sarkar, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza (captain), Mosharraf Hossain, Taijul Islam and Taskin Ahmed.  

Afghanistan squad (probable): Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Nawroz Mangal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Stanikzai (captain), Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Rashid Khan, Mirwais Ashraf, Dawlat Zadran and Naveen-ul-Haque.