|| CF Correspondent ||

Bangladesh national women’s cricket team head coach Anju Jain feel that they need to win more matches to make their presence felt and they are looking forward to go in that direction from the upcoming ICC World Twenty20 qualifiers.

Tigress will leave Dhaka tomorrow for Netherlands as they are scheduled to play four matches as part of their preparation in Holland and then travel to Scotland on 27 August for the ICC WT20WC Qualifiers 2019, scheduled to be played from August 31 to September 7 in Scotland.

The Women’s team so far took part in the World T20 three times in 2014, 2016 and 2018 but came up with abysmal performance with one victory to show in these three tournaments and especially in the last tournament in 2018, Bangladesh’s female cricketer’s performance disappointing considering the fact that the Women’s team came to play the 2018 World T20 by winning the Asia Cup, beating team like India twice in group phase and final.

According to Anju, Tigress seemed to be more determined than before as they are quite shocked with the way they played in the last edition of World Cup and as a result they are keen to show their killing instinct from the very beginning of their campaign.

‘’It’s disappointing the way we’ve played in the 2018 World Cup for sure but I think that had worked into the girl’s mind also. Now they really want to work harder than ever and that’s what we are doing this season,’’ Anju told reporters on Wednesday ahead of their departure.

‘’For us, being good is not good enough as Last season the target for us was to make our presence felt everywhere and people have noticed our performances,’’ she said.

‘’But until we start winning more matches, it’s not going to solve the purpose for us. This year the target is to win more number of games from the qualifying round. Our first target is to qualify then we’ll start again and go series by series’’, she added.

“It’s always good to play more international cricket, but our target is now to qualify first then we will start progressing to the World Cup after that. In the qualifier, we’ve to be at our best in all three departments and that’s what we’ve been working on. Since T20 is an unpredictable format we won’t take any side lightly and we’ll keep going with the same approach’’, she added

Anju said they are now emphasizing on need-based training and added the spotted few talents during the Emerging Cup in South Africa recently.

“It’s not about lacking. Actually, at that time our batting didn’t click that well. If our bowling and fielding were concerned, we did well in the World Cup. But we have been working on that. We had three and a half weeks for skills and fitness campaign in Rajshahi. We had identified some batting areas and started working on it. Fortunately, we got South Africa emerging tour which helped us to find some new players. Now we are getting more balanced side and we don’t have to depend on one or two players,’’ said Anju.

 “Last year we started working with the fitness level and this year it remains the same. To compete in international event, players’ fitness level needs to be improved. If you see, the girls have become much fitter. But fielding is one area that we are still working on. It might make the difference between us and the other sides. Batting and bowling wise everybody is looking in pretty good shape but we’ll keep working hard on our fielding’’, she concluded.

All-rounder Rumana Ahmed won’t be able to participate in the qualifiers due to knee injury but according to Anju they have got players to fill her void.

Bangladesh have recalled Murshida Khatun, Sobhana Mostary and Shaila Sharmin, giving the Salma Khatun-led squad a good mix of experience and youth.