Openers need to play freely: Mashrafe
Photo: Cricfrenzy
|| Desk Report ||
Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza said that their new opening pair needs to play without any pressure against Afghnaistan in the ongoing Asia Cup.
The Tigers have been forced to change their opening pair against Afghanistan, on Thursday (September 20), due to an unexpected injury sustained by Tamim Iqbal against Sri Lanka, which eventually ruled him out of the tournament.
Nazmul Hossain is considered to be the best possible option to replace Tamim while Liton Kumar Das is likely to continue as the other opener for the Mashrafe-led side.
However, Nazmul is yet to make his ODI debut while Liton has recently made a comeback to the ODI setup. Both of them would be eager to seize their opportunities and try to establish a place for them so that they can be considered even when Tamim returns after recovering from the injury.
Mashrafe said that instead of taking any such pressure of proving their mettle in the middle they should enjoy the stage and just try to play according to their strength.
“I think without creating extra pressure, they should be allowed to play the way they like to and so we are not giving them any messages apart from trying to help,’’ Mashrafee told reporters regarding the new opening pair.
“Whatever pressure cricket they have experienced in BPL and Dhaka League, they have performed so if they can play with that mentality then they will be able to play well.
“I believe if they can enjoy themselves then there is good opportunity to do well,” he said.
Mashrafe pointed out that no-one knows as there is a possibility that they can even go beyond their expectation.
“The young players would have to try and obviously we don’t expect from them what Tamim was doing [for us],” said Mashrafe. “But if they give their best performance then maybe they could even do what Tamim did.
“I just expect a good start from them and at the same time if they get set then to manage to make it count.”
