15-member Bangladesh squad depart for Zimbabwe
Bangladesh will look to cash in on the low confidence of the Zimbabwean cricketers after the Southern African country’s below-par performance against the West Indies recently,
said skipper Mushfiqur Rahim on Wednesday.
Bangladesh boarded for Zimbabwe to feature in a two-match Test series, beginning from April 17, along with three one-day internationals and two Twenty20 internationals with the hope of changing their fortune.
‘The last series they (Zimbabwe) played against West Indies, they were beaten convincingly and that would certainly have an effect on their confidence and that’s a plus point for us,’ Mushfiq told reporters at the airport before boarding for the plane.
‘They are bound to be low on confidence. Even though they are playing at home, if you don’t perform well then your confidence is bound to suffer,’ said Mushfiq.
Zimbabwe, who have lost all of their six Test matches since their win over the Tigers on their return to Test cricket after six years in 2011, were beaten convincingly in their last tour of the Caribbean.
‘We have an opportunity to alter the result in Zimbabwe as we could not play well over there in the last series. We played well in Sri Lanka both individually and as a team and we are pretty confident of doing well there,’ said Mushfiq.
‘It is always difficult to play well against them and beat them at their own backyard but we are mentally and physically prepared,’ he added.
Mushfiq was satisfied with the squad, and with the inclusion of mercurial all-rounder Sakib al Hasan and dashing opener Tamim Iqbal, believes that the team has got the capacity to do well in the series.
‘I am happy with the squad and hopefully they will seek to deliver to their potential and realise that this tour is very important for us,’ said Mushfiq.
‘Obviously their (Sakib and Tamim) return will rub off on the team even if they don’t play. I welcome them and hope they will continue to perform as they did throughout their careers,’ added Mushfiq.
Sakib returned to the side after an injury lay off while Tamim is recovering well from his thumb injury.
The wicketkeeper-batsman urged the pace bowlers to pull up their socks as he feels that the wicket in Harare would suit the pacemen more than the spinners and expressed his hope that the five-day practice session there will aid their progress.
‘The Harare (Sports Club) track does not help the spinners. We have pace bowlers and if they can showcase their skill I am confident the Zimbabwean batsmen will face difficulties,’ said Mushfiq.
‘We were not given a good side to play against in the practice match so we decided to skip the match altogether and train for five days leading up to the Test match. If we can acclimatise with the weather and carry out the practice sessions as per our plan then it would be very useful,’ he added.
‘We are consistently performing in the last eighteen months across all three formats though we are yet to get everything right in the Twenty20s. But we are improving in the Tests and ODIs and now we have got lots of performers who can perform on their day. Hopefully they will continue to do so,’ said Mushfiq.
The 24-year old captain from Bogra also feels that Bangladesh has learnt to cope up with pressure, unlike before.
‘There is always pressure playing against Zimbabwe and Ireland. But it (pressure) increased much more when we played against Sri Lanka in the last tour as we did not have a good track record as well as missing some key players. So we have learned to handle pressure quite well during the last one year,’ added Mushfiq.
Regarding the lack of a practice game, the skipper confirmed that he was not disappointed rather he felt that it would help them to prepare well.
‘A practice match is always helpful but if you remember the last two series, we played the practice matches in an under-prepared wicket where our batsman struggled and definitely it had an effect on our players in the Test matches,’ added Mushfiq.
‘Unfortunately we could not train in the last few days but we needed rest as we played high-intensity cricket for the last one month. There were lots of injuries and the ones who were injured did a lot of practice among themselves in the last one month,’ he said.
-With New Age input
