Bangladesh WT20 mission starts
Image : Getty
||CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh began their preparation for the upcoming World Twenty20 with the ongoing three-match T20 international series against India.
The series started with the host taking on the visitors at the Arun Jatley Stadium on Sunday.
The Tigers will take on their Asian neighbors with hopes of bringing some fresh air in the country’s most popular sport after a recent series of off-the-field controversies while they will keep their eyes to form a formidable squad for the global tournament, scheduled at Australia in 2020.
From players’ strike for renovating country’s cricket structure to the ICC imposing a two-year ban on their regular Test and Twenty20 skipper Sakib al Hasan for failing to report corrupt approaches, Bangladesh cricket has faced a turbulent two weeks.
Mahmudullah, who had previous experience of leading Bangladesh in five Twenty20s and six Tests, was provided the captaincy role in Twenty20s just a day before the team left for India.
Bangladesh lost all the three matches that they played without their ace player Shakib al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal, who opted to rule himself out for attending his wife who is expecting a second child, so far and now they would hope that it is not the case against their superior opponents.
India have never hosted Bangladesh for a full series and the first time they do so, the welcome has been far from pleasing for the visitors and if they want to visit regularly than they have to make their mark so that they host are keen to play them on regular basis.
‘’We know we have some drawbacks in the recent past while some of members are missing due to injuries and other issues but that can be an opportunity for other to grab,’’ Bangladesh chief selector Minhajul Abedin told daily sun ahead of the series opener as he will be keenly watching the developments for getting their acts together in the big show.
‘’We are looking forward to see how our T20 squad shapes up and how some of our young cricketers respond under pressure. They will be challenged by their Indian counterparts and we are looking forward to see how they take this challenge,’’ he said.
From cricketing point of view Bangladesh will focus on their batting department more than anything else as that is one area where they will have some severe lacking as one of their batsmen have a strike rate of more than 135 since the last ICC T20 World Cup apart from Liton Das and against a dominant Indian side, they'll need all the batting firepower they can to challenge the hosts.
‘’We are aware that our batsmen need to click from all cylinders. We will try some new players in the series and see how they fill their roles in those positions,’’ said Minhajul.
‘’We need to have someone settled at number three while our opening pair also needs to be more consistent as they are the ones to lay the platform for the others,’’ he con
At the same time they will have chance to figure out who have the ability to fill the all-round vacuum and make sure that they have the right people in the right places because players excel in this shortest format with their all-round ability.
T20 is all about bits and pieces players and we have to make sure we have couple of them in our squad. That is one area that we are looking at in the upcoming series,’’ he said.
Minhajul added that they are also looking to see how Mahmudullah leads the side considering his ability as a leader will be tested in the series.
‘’Naturally we want to his captaincy skill though it is too early to say whether he is our future captain and that can only be decided once we see his leadership skill in the ongoing series,’’ he concluded.
