Sports Desk : dhakamirror.com
Bangladesh national cricket team chief selector Minhajul Abedin reassured that the team management wouldn’t experiment further with the opening slot during the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia.
Bangladesh are scheduled to start their campaign in the Super 12 round on October 24 in Hobart against the Group A runners-up from the qualifying round that began on October 16.
As part of their preparation for the tournament proper, the Tigers have already lost their first warm-up match against Afghanistan by 62 runs at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane on Monday.
They will end their preparations with another practice match against South Africa at the same venue today. The game will start at 2:00pm Bangladesh Standard Time.
Bangladesh’s team management has been experimenting with their opening combination since the Asia Cup in August, and this has continued until the recent tri-nation series in Christchurch, New Zealand.
They used Mehidy Hasan and Sabbir Rahman as makeshift openers against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup, which lasted until the first match of the tri-series.
Following the pair’s failure, they dropped Sabbir and continued with Mehidy-Najmul Hossain Shanto, Shanto-Liton Das, and Shanto-Soumya Sarkar in the subsequent matches.
Even in the warm-up match against Afghanistan on Monday, they promoted Mehidy with Shanto.
‘We have already done the experiments. Now it’s time for the World Cup and we have a few training sessions ahead from where we have to get ourselves ready for the matches,’ Minhajul told reporters in Brisbane on Tuesday.
‘I hope that our best combination will play in the World Cup after the end of the warm-up matches.’
He further added that the team management would like to take a final decision on the batting order till the very last moment.
‘It is difficult to comment right now as we have to discuss it with the team management and we will be able to say more about it tomorrow [Wednesday]. Hence, we will get a further 4-5 days to prepare the team,’ added the former national team captain.
‘I hope that meanwhile, our side will be up for it and everyone will give their best from the very first game of the tournament.’
