Tigers now revolve around World Cup
Photo - Cricfrenzy
|| CF Correspondent ||
With 2019 World Cup in England approaching fast, Bangladesh’s all plan now revolves around the cricket’s biggest extravaganza.
After Bangladesh’s success against Zimbabwe and West Indies in bilateral series and in Asia Cup, it looked they are sure about the players who are going to play the World Cup. But what would continue to haunt Bangladesh is the batting position of the batsmen, as they got a number of players who are used to play in the top of the batting order.
Over the last two years, Bangladesh had to reshuffle the batting position of the players but it looked still they are in dark to what to do. It’s not that the likes of Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Liton Das were not successful batting down the order but it’s also not that they are playing in this position regularly, which experts earlier suggested that could haunt them at some point.
But Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes though showed his delight over the batsmen’s versatility but seemed to have no headache with that. He rather thought that the opener can bat any position, which is quite good for the side.
“It’s important not to pigeonhole. Give people tags, that this is what they do. They’re batsmen, they may open some days and they may not open some days. They are quality batsmen and batsmen can play anywhere. Essentially the other thing is going from number four or five to open is more difficult,” Rhodes said.
“If you are an opening bat you can bat practically anywhere. And I think Soumya has really shown some good signs in batting anywhere for us. He is a very versatile cricketer – he bowls, he fields – he can bat anywhere. He is a very good cricketer to have around. And Imrul, predominantly he has been an opener but we saw in the Asia Cup that he came in and batted at number seven and got 70-odd. I quite like the idea of having versatility in batting and people who like batting in different positions.”
He however would like to think about and plan about World Cup. Rhodes said he had long chat about Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza about the World Cup plan just after the completion of the third match against West Indies.
“Mash and I sit a lot and chat. We had a long chat before yesterday’s game and I think that both of us feel that we’re closer to what we need,” he said.
With 20 years coaching experience under the belt with English County side, unarguably Rhodes is the best person to give Bangladesh idea about the World Cup venues in which Mashrafe and company will be playing.
“We are very lucky that I’ve spent a lot of time in England playing cricket. I know all the grounds and facilities well. And Mash is an expert, as Shakib is, with captaincy regarding the opposition. He has played against a lot of these players before many times. We are getting closer to knowing what we require,” he said.
The main thing, Rhodes insisted that would to be keep players continuously involved in ODI cricket.
“We are also getting closer to knowing whether they can do it or not. So we are getting closer. We have got quite a big squad for these one-dayers. We did that on purpose to make sure everybody was involved in white-ball cricket. Even if you’re not picked in the World Cup squad, you are going to need some reserves. So we need people who have been around and understand the way we play."
