Winning the opening game is all that matters: Mashrafe
© Cricfrenzy
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe bin Mortaza thinks winning the opening game of the tournament will set the tone for them in the upcoming Asia Cup tournament.
Bangladesh failed to clinch their desired title despite coming close on two occasions in the last three editions of the competition. The Tigers will surely not mind a change of fortune this time.
“If we can do well in the opening game we have a chance to progress further in the tournament,” Mashrafe told reporters on Thursday as the tame concluded their training camp for the tournament.
“If you look at the bowling strength of Afghanistan and all-rounder potency of the Sri Lanka, anything can happen. So for us the opening game is the most important,” he said.
The new format that is in place for Asia Cup, as it has become a six-team tournament, leave Bangladesh at risk of being eliminated from the opening stage where they are placed in group B along with Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
Two teams from each group will advance to the Super Four in the tournament and that looks to be the primary goal of Tigers.
Emphasizing on the opening game is more important to Mashrafe because he doesn’t want the team’s fate hanging on the second game where they will face Afghanistan, who dominated them in a three-T20I series at Dehradhun and completed a clean sweep over the Tigers in the recent past.
Although the format is different, the ghost of Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Zadran looked very much alive at the back of Mashrafe’s mind that prompts him to believe that the best way to go against the Afghan’s is by carrying a winning momentum.
“If we can win the opening match we are sure it will help us to handle Rashid and Mujeeb much better,” said the Bangladesh ODI captain. “But if don’t do well in the opening game it will double the difficulties in handling the Afghanistan bowlers. So the first game will set the tone for us.”
