I don't have a crystal ball: Rhodes
© Cricfrenzy
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes said on Thursday that they are carrying a good confidence going into the Asia Cup after their ODI and T20I series win against West Indies.
“I think it would be a wonderful achievement for us to win the Asia Cup,” Rhodes told reporters at the pre-tournament press conference.
“We are going there with full of confidence. We are ranked higher than the West Indies [in ODIs] but those were still tough games. Winning there gave the team a lot of confidence,” he said.
Rhodes has set qualifying to the next round as the team’s primary goal, as the new format is extremely challenging. In this format, there is a risk of being eliminated from the opening stage.
The Tiger are placed in group B along with Sri Lanka and Afghanistan and two of these three sides will advance the Super Four.
“We have two games to qualify, which is the most important thing. We shouldn’t assume that we will get into the next group. We play well against Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, then it will add to the confidence,” Rhodes said.
The new head coach is well aware of expectation and doesn’t want to burden his charges by driving it on their shoulder.
“If I was looking at a crystal ball, I could have told you that we have won the Asia Cup. But I don’t have it. There are other mighty teams in Asia – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan,” said Rhodes.
“We believe we can. If we try our best, give the 100 per cent, and play some good cricket and believe we can win,” said the 54-year-old.
