The fans should tone down on their expectations while the cricketers should concentrate on their own game rather than think about Afghanistan, Bangladesh all rounder Sakib al Hasan said ahead of their ICC World Twenty20 preliminary round campaign. The Tigers have been pitted against Afghanistan, Nepal and Hong Kong in Group A in the first round with just one team qualifying for the Super 10 phase.
All talks in the Bangladesh camp are currently limited to Afghanistan, arguably the best non-Test playing nation at present. The Afghans
gave a perfect demonstration of their skills in the recently concluded Asia Cup with a 32-run win over Bangladesh.
‘It will not bring any good results if we keep thinking about Afghanistan,’ said Sakib, who missed the Asia Cup game against the side through suspension. ‘It is upto them what they will do. For us the most important thing is what we will do. If we can play our own game,
we can even beat the top teams in the world.’
Sakib insisted that there are two more teams in the group and Bangladesh should pay some attention on them as well.
‘Our main target is to qualify for the second round, so we should be careful about all teams. This is T20 cricket and here Hong Kong, Nepal are also big teams like we are big teams to Australia and Pakistan. One or two overs or even one bad ball can change the result,’ he said.
The 26-year old all rounder warned his teammates that the
mystery factor surrounding Hong Kong could hurt them in the tournament.
‘We don’t see their games too often. It can always happen that one particular player can have his best game on a particular day. And it happened against us in the past. One Scotland player scored a century to take the game from our grip. This is why we should play our game and avoid too many mistakes,’ he said.
Sakib also urged the fans not to expect too much from them.
‘It is always a nice feeling playing in front of your own crowd. They always support us which we need the most. But I would request them just to give us support and not expect too much. Everybody should think that at the end of the day it is just a game. We also get disappointed if the team loses. But everybody should take it sportingly,’ he said.
Ranked the world’s third-best all rounder according to the latest one-day international rankings, Sakib was not ready to compare the ICC World T20 with the Asia Cup where Bangladesh lost all four games.
‘The Asia Cup is a 50-over game and it is a 20-over game. Both are different formats. So it is important we keep our composure,’ he said.
Sakib has played domestic T20 tournaments all over the world but the lad from Magura said that it was not just him, rather, some other Bangladeshi players are also experienced in this format as well.
‘We all played in two BPLs [Bangladesh Premier League] so we know how to play T20 cricket. When we started playing T20s, we had no idea about it,’ he said.
Nasir Hossain is one player Bangladesh will heavily depend on for some positive results.
The lower middle-order batsman is not in his best form recently having finished the series against Sri Lanka and Asia Cup at home without a single half-century.
Speaking to reporters in the open media session, Nasir, however, said that he was feeling good now after showing some signs of returning to form in the last couple of games.
‘The position in which I bat, normally I don’t get too much time, so I always have to keep my strike-rate high,’ said Nasir.
‘If I consume 20 balls for 10 runs, it puts the team under pressure. So I need to score off every ball almost.
‘Everybody has some bad patch in their career. But I think I am on my way to overcoming it. I scored 31, 30 and 41 in my last three games. Maybe I was unable to register a fifty but still I think it is okay.’
Bangladesh’s recent poor performances were partly attributed to the poor displays of another senior cricketer Abdur Razzak.
The left-arm spinner, easily the most experienced cricketer in the Bangladesh side, missed the Tigers’ last two T20 Internationals against Sri Lanka due to injury.
He returned to the side in the Asia Cup but could not replicate his form that has enabled him to scalp more than 200 wickets in one-day internationals. Razzak was so out of depth that Bangladesh were forced to drop him in their last game against the Lankans.
‘Personally I will try to give the team what it wants from me,’ said Razzak. ‘I don’t think I am finished. When I do then I will quit the
game. As long as I think I can deliver, I don’t really care who says what about me.’
Bangladesh had posted 325-3 from their 50 overs against Pakistan and when Razzak came on to bowl in the 48th over, the visitors belted him for 18 runs to take the game away from the hosts.
‘I am taking all the criticism as a positive. In the last few days I have worked on my bowling a great deal and I hope to show it over the upcoming days,’ said Razzak.
-With New Age input
