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Bangladesh's life in the Asia Cup 2018 has been about pain, and about largely finding routes for overcoming most of it. On the opening day, Tamim Iqbal was lost to a wrist fracture, and by the time they made it to the final Super Four game with still something to play for, Shakib Al Hasan couldn't play on any further due to his fractured finger. That's left Mushfiqur Rahim - a member of Bangladesh's most important batting trio - to do a lot all by himself. Bangladesh Cricket Board's decision to circumvent the captain of the side Mashrafe Mortaza and bring in top-order reinforcements in Imrul Kayes and Soumya Sarkar has worked in odd ways. Kayes has done well by adapting to his middle-order role and played the innings that kept Bangladesh alive. Sarkar's failure to bat well against Pakistan still raises question marks regarding his inclusion, but he bowled five crucial overs, and will remain crucial through his bit-part role in the absence of Shak...

New PCB chairman Ehsan Mani has talked up the need to keep the dialogue with BCCI over bilateral cricket going, and to keep it separate from all the political tensions between the two countries. India haven't played Pakistan in a bilateral series since 2012, with two teams meeting in just the multi-team events. Even the ongoing Asia Cup was moved from India to UAE, in order to pave the way for India-Pakistan matches. The Indian women's team too bore the brunt of the fractured political relations between the two countries, as the ICC awarded Pakistan six points for India's failure to play the away bilateral series that was part of the ICC Women's Championship. "When an India-Pakistan match is played, over a 100 billion people watch the game from all over the world. No one cares about the politics. The main thing is to get the cricket going and this is a main thing in that direction. I am very hopeful the Board will work towards it. Am not ...