The Tigers will leave Dhaka today to take part in the Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates with high hopes. Since the Asia Cup returned to the 50-over format, the Tigers have backed themselves to do well. The team's confidence is also considerably higher following the ODI and T20I series wins against West Indies.

There has been lot of controversy over Shakib Al Hasan's fitness for last few days but the ace all-rounder is set to join the team in the UAE directly from New York. However, there are a couple of injury concerns over Tamim Iqbal and Nazmul Hossain Shanto.

"Tamim [Iqbal] and Shanto [Nazmul Hossain] have been suffering from a little bit of pain in their injured fingers but there aren't any serious concerns as X-ray reports didn't show anything wrong," said BCB physician Dr. Debashish Chowdhury.

“Honestly speaking, I am not aware about many things as I was not with the team for a certain period of time. Shakib will join the team in the UAE. Tamim's injury is not serious. We have time in our hand and we are hopeful that everything will be okay before the start of the tournament," informed Khaled Mahmud, who will accompany the team as a manager. Mahmud did not perform the team manager role for the last three series.

Bangladesh will play against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup opener on September 15 and then take on Afghanistan in their second Group B match on September 20 in Abu Dhabi.

Group-A consists of defending champions India, Pakistan and Hong Kong. The top two teams from each group will proceed to the Super-4 round. The sides will then play each other in round robin format to decide the two finalists. The final will be held on 28 September in Dubai.