Ace all-rounder Sakib al Hasan said on Monday that the four-match Twenty20 series against Zimbabwe will be great opportunity for them to improve their skill and confidence ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 and Asia Cup Twenty20. Bangladesh team is now at Khulna to play the series that will commence on Friday and Sakib said that apart from clinching the series they will also try to improve as individuals and as a team.
‘The series provides us an opportunity to boost our morale by performing well individually and collectively,’ Sakib told reporters in at Khulna.
‘Winning is very important. Things become easy when we can maintain a winning run. We shall try to win and improve simultaneously. We have two important tournaments ahead,’ he added.
Sakib informed that right now they are practicing to improve their skill and find out the proper combination of the crucial encounters.
‘Now we are practicing and trying to find the best combination. We will think about the game plan from tomorrow onwards and now thinking about our own skill.’
Zimbabwe have been struggling recently and they were clean-swept by Afghanistan, a non-Test playing nation, in the two-match Twenty20 series.
Earlier they conceded two back-to-back one-day international series at home and away with an identical 3-2 margin.
But the world number one all-rounder wiped away any situation of lack of motivation to face them as he thinks that playing for country’s colour itself is the greatest motivator.
‘Motivation is not required. The players who play in the national team are always motivated. We need not think about that.’
Bangladesh is scheduled to play only Twenty20 matches in the first half of the year and though Sakib wants to play all forms of cricket regularly he believes that those matches will help Bangladesh improve their Twnety20 skill, which they lack right now.
Bangladesh is on the 10th spot of ICC Twenty20I ranking behind Afghanistan, unlike ODIs where they are sitting pretty at seventh place.
‘We want to play all the formats regularly. But as we play very little Twenty-20 matches it will be great opportunity to improve in this format as we will play many Twenty20 matches in next 3-4 months.’
-With New Age input
