Bangladesh opt to bowl against India in Asia Cup semi-final

Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bowl first against India in the 2026 Women’s Asia Cup semi-final in Dubai. India enter the knockout clash unbeaten, while Bangladesh secured their semi-final berth after finishing second in Group B

Dubai: Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bowl first against India in the first semi-final of the 2026 Women’s Asia Cup at the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday.

Both teams are unchanged from their previous matches for the high-stakes knockout clash.

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The winner will seal a place in the final, to be played on Sunday.

Seven-time champions India enter the crucial semi-final on the back of an unbeaten run in Group A, where they recorded clinical victories over Thailand, Hong Kong-China and Pakistan.

“To be honest, we thought of batting first only because we thought having runs on the board would give us a lot of confidence, and it’s good that we got batting first. Definitely. T20 format is like that — you can’t take any team lightly, and the result is always uncertain. Today is a fresh game, and we have to go with a positive approach,” said India captain Harmanpreet Kaur.

“I’ve been saying that this pitch is really tricky. You can’t really set something in your mind, but let’s see how our batting powerplay goes, and accordingly we’ll see how much we can put on board,” she added.

In contrast, 2018 champions Bangladesh navigated a turbulent campaign to reach the last-four stage, including a victory over the UAE in a must-win game on Tuesday to finish second in Group B.

“We want to bowl first, seeing the conditions. We want to give our bowlers the wicket to work on. I think it’s just a new day. We’re just looking forward to playing good cricket here because it’s been a long time,” said Bangladesh skipper Nigar Sultana Joty.

“We definitely have some good memories from (the 2018 triumph), but it’s an important day for all of us because it’s our last game in this tournament. It could not be the last game because if we could do well here, maybe we might get another chance (in the final),” she added.

Playing XIs:

India: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Deepti Sharma, Bharti Fulmali, Richa Ghosh (wk), Prema Rawat, N Sree Charani, Kranti Gaud, Nandni Sharma.

Bangladesh: Dilara Akter, Juairiya Ferdous, Sobhana Mostary, Nigar Sultana (captain & wk), Sharmin Akhter, Shorna Akter, Fahima Khatun, Nahida Akter, Rabeya Khan, Sultana Khatun, Marufa Akter.