Tigers leave with high hopes

The Bangladesh national cricket team, led by Mushfiqur Rahim, left Dhaka for Trinidad on Friday to complete the last leg of their preparations for next month’s ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.
The national team under the banner of BCBXI will play in the Trinidad & Tobago Quadrangular Twenty20 competition from September 6-8 that has been organised as part of celebration of their independence.
After playing a practice match against a local side on September 5, the BCBXI will take on Barbados on September 6 followed by Afghanistan the next day and Trinidad & Toba o on September 8 at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain.
The national team will then head for Sri Lanka on September 9 to take part in the ICC World Twenty20 starting from September 18 where Bangladesh have been placed in Group D along with New Zealand and Pakistan.
The Tigers will play both the group matches at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium and will take on New Zealand on September 21 followed by Pakistan on September 25.
The national players will have the chance to sort out their game plan as they will play two practice games against Zimbabwe on September 15 and against Ireland on September 17 in Colombo before beginning their campaign in the tournament.
The Tigers would be keen to better their record in this tournament as they had failed to reach the second round in the last two editions despite beginning with a high promise in the inaugural edition in 2007. Bangladesh beat West Indies in their very first game but it proved to be a false dawn as it remained their only success in nine matches.
The national cricketers are going into the tournament with adequate preparations under their belt through the guidance of their new head coach Richard Pybus with 10 matches including four unofficial games in the last three months.
Skipper Mushfiqur Rahim is keen to take positives from the matches to reverse their World Twenty20 fate.
‘We are having a good Twenty20 rhythm as we have played quite a few number of T20 matches recently and in the last couple of months we have increased our understanding of playing in this format as we have played quite a lot,’ Mushfiq told reporters on Friday.
Mushfiq, who was involved in the Sri Lankan Premier League, said the experience in the Caribbean would be of great help as they have strong players in this demanding format of the game.
‘The regional teams of the West Indies such as Barbados and Trinidad are very strong sides and they have the culture of playing Twenty20 cricket over a long period of time,’ said Mushfiq.
‘I expect some hard cricket from them and believe it will be very beneficial for us to have the opportunity to play in the tournament just before the ICC Twenty20 World Cup,’ he said.