Bangladesh ready for their ‘knockout’ game against Afghanistan, says Shanto
Najmul Hossain Shanto
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Top-order batter Najmul Hossain Shanto only played a gritty innings and made 89 to play a lone hand in Bangladesh's innings after they elected to bat first in their five-wicket loss against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup at Pallekele.
After losing the first match, the second match of the group stage against Afghanistan has become a knockout match for Bangladesh.
Shanto said in the post-match press meet that they will enter the game to win the next match against Afghans.
However, it was Afghanistan who won the last ODI series against Bangladesh but the Southpaw said that they are not thinking about the previous series.
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“We will play to win the next match. After winning the next match, the situation will be understood. But when we play the next match, we will play to win. We played well in the last two T20Is (Afghanistan Series). The ODI series did not go well. We are not worried about what happened in the past, our team is very good. We believe if we can play our game, we can certainly do well against Afghanistan,” Shanto told the reporters.
Shanto, who bats at number three, stood calm after Bangladesh lost their openers early and put on key partnerships including a 59-run fourth-wicket stand with Towhid Hridoy, who was next best with 20.
He registered his fourth ODI half-century with hit seven boundaries but left short of a hundred.
In response to the question whether he has any regrets about the century miss, Shanto said, “No, I have only one regret - if I could have batted the entire 50 overs, that would have been nice.”
