Our World Cup preparation will begin in Ireland: Rhodes
Steve Rhodes
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes is eyeing to do well in the upcoming ICC World Cup as most of their players will have a lot of experiences, going into the global tournament.
The Bangladesh team is expected to be a dark horse in the World Cup in England. Their preparation will start from the upcoming tour of New Zealand.
Rhodes insisted that he is not taking the New Zealand tour into consideration adding that their World Cup preparation will start from the tour of Ireland following the New Zealand tour.
“I think New Zealand is going to be really difficult – they are a good side and they all formats pretty well so we’ve got one-dayers and Tests. We know that we need to improve our Test game away from home. We’re not hiding away from that point. But we’ll be a little bit better prepared this time. So any results in New Zealand will be good,” Rhodes told reporters.
In Ireland, Bangladesh will play a tri-nation series that also involves West Indies. The series will reportedly begin on May 5, with the final match scheduled to be held on May 17, 13 days before the start of the World Cup.
“We want to get things moving in the right direction once we’re in Ireland. If we can have a good tri-series there, that will give us confidence going into the World Cup. But what I am pleased about the World Cup is, if you look at the international ODIs played, there are quite a few of our players... you will see that we are getting to be quite an experienced ODI team,” said Rhodes.
“In big tournaments that holds you in good stead, that puts you in a very good place. You look at some of the characters – Mahmudullah, Tamim, Shakib, and then Mushy. And Fizz is now getting his game time up there in one-dayers... if you start adding them all up, we’ve got quite an experienced side now. And that’s a good thing in the World Cup. It’s all about the last stages of the World Cup and sure, it’s always good to get off to a good start.
“I’ve seen a lot of teams in the World Cup start poorly but get on a roll midway through and finish the qualifying stages on a high and take that high into the knockout stages. I’m not saying let’s not win the first few games – I want to win every game – but if you do struggle in your early games, there’s still a lot of games to catch up and get momentum. If you can get momentum and get confidence as you go along through that tournament, then that will be a good thing for the later stages,” he added.
The Englishman was, however, reluctant to make any prediction for his team.
“No huge predictions about what we do; I’d love to be in the later stages and then in the final. Of course I would [like them to be the champions], it would be fantastic for the country. But cricket’s a strange game and hopefully we’d just be doing our best,” he said.
