Bangladesh under-19 team will be desperate to change the history in the age-level World Cup tournament as the tournament is set to roll on in four venues across the country from January 27. Bangladesh Under-19 skipper Mehedi Hasan Miraz, who also led the side in the previous edition of the tournament two years ago in UAE to clinch the plate title, said he was eying for bigger glory this time around.
Bangladesh had some promising performances at junior level but their best achievement in the to
urnament is the fifth place finish in 2006 in Sri Lanka.
Speaking to New Age in the National Cricket Academy on sideline of practice on Thursday, Mehedi said he wants to rewrite the history.
‘Our target is to change the history,’ he said. ‘Everyone says that our under-19 team is not so good, they never get the ultimate success.
‘We will try to prove that our under-19 team is also very good.’
In the 2006 edition, when Bangladesh got their best success so far they had the players like Mushfiqur Rahim, Sakib al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal, who later made their name in international cricket.
Mehedi believes the previous side that he led in the last edition also had the capacity but the current side has more experience along with their capacity that he reckons will bring the success.
‘In the last edition our team had some quality players but this time apart from quality we have experience as well that I believe will make the difference.
‘We have 11 players who have played first class cricket. Our players took part in the premier league, at international level and played many matches for Under-19.
‘In such a tournament experience is very crucial and I hope that will give us an edge.’
Other than Mehedi, vice-captain Nazmul Hossain, Saeed Sarkar, wicketkeeper Zakir Hasan and Joyraj Sheikh are four other cricketers who played in the previous edition of the tournament in UAE.
Bangladesh Under-19 side beat their South African counterparts in both home and away series and they also beat Sri Lanka and West Indies sides in bi-lateral series and the skipper thinks that experience will boost their confidence.
‘We played together for last two years and we had a few series in this period that gave us ample amount of experience. We played four series and won all of them so that will give us a great boost in the World Cup.
‘The tournament will be staged on our home soil so everything will be favourable for us and if we can keep our focus on cricket I hope we will get success.’
But the captain also made sure that they are safeguarding any sort of complacency and he is well-aware of the history of Bangladesh under-19 team who played so well in many series but choked in the coveted event in the past.
In 2006 the junior Tigers beat their English counterparts 11 times in a row before they lost the pivotal quarter-final battle at the World Cup against the same side to bow out of the tournament.
‘Our confidence level is very high right now but at the same time we know that this is World Cup, where no one can afford to relax and slip.
‘We will be aware not to make any mistake and we know the importance of winning matches here. Even if we would lose to South Africa we would give our best to defeat them in this tournament.
‘We know South Africa will come as a stronger unit with new plans to defeat us but we will be ready and there is no room for complacency in our part.’
The skipper is also confident that his team-mates will remain focused only in the game wiping out all the expectations of home crowd and media despite their tender age.
Mehedi claimed that they will think only about match by match and will put an emphasis on keeping the process correct as he believes premature thinking about big targets will cause disdain.
‘We know the expectation is huge and we are set for a big target but to achieve that we must remained focus.
‘We have to think match by match and keep on doing our job through right process. We have to first focus on our first round matches and only then we can think about the later stages.
‘If we just think about the championship from the beginning we will be in trouble.’
Bangladesh will start their campaign against South Africa in Chittagong on January 28 before taking on Scotland at Cox’s Bazar on January 31.
The hosts will end their group stage with a match against Namibia at Cox’s Bazar on Feb 2.
-With New Age input
