After a day’s rest, the Tigers returned to business at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday. The sun didn’t shine on the day, but the gloom as well as the defeat against India in the opening match of the ICC Cricket World Cup hardly dampened the spirit of Shakib Al Hasan’s men. They looked like a happy unit.
There might have been lack of enthusiasm outside the stadium comparing the euphoria before the opening ceremony and the opening match, but there was no shortage of enthusiasm among the players.
“As players need rest, so do the fans. But I am sure they will sing and cheer for us like they did before when we play Ireland,” responded Bangladesh vice-captain Tamim Iqbal with a smile when a foreign journalist drew his attention to the lack of enthusiasm around the stadium.
The mood in the Tigers’ tent was that what happened against India was now past and they had to shift their focus on their next game against Ireland on February 25 at Mirpur.
“We had a meeting today and what I can assure everybody is that we are no longer thinking about the India match. We still have five matches in the first round and we are now completely focussing on Ireland. In my opinion today is the best day in one and a half months’ practice as everybody enjoyed it and was relaxed,” added Tamim.
There is hardly any scope for the Tigers to be complacent against the Europeans, who not only have a sweet memory against the Tigers in the 2007 World Cup but also have the ability to stun any team on their day, and Tamim also believed that they would need to play their best to beat the ICC Associate Member nation.
“It’s World Cup, so there is no scope to be complacent at any stage. Ireland are a good team but we have the experience of playing against them and we know almost all of their players. We need to execute our plans which we failed to do against India. Our team is in good shape mentally and what I believe is that we have the ability to beat any team if we can play to our potential,” observed Tamim.
But it’s not easy to bring back the confidence of the bowlers, particularly the pacers after the way they were punished by the Indian batsmen. Shafiul Islam was particularly terrible and he was nowhere near his natural bowling in the first game, but coach Jamie Siddons assured that his bowlers were confident enough.
“We did not bowl very well but our confidence is really good, we bowled against probably the best batting line up in the World,” said Siddons.
The Bangladesh coach also believed that it was poor bowling and not the decision of bowling first that caused the 87-run defeat in the first game.
“I admit we bowled badly and that is the only thing you can criticise, not the decision [to bowl first]. You are the same people who termed the decision crazy after we put up a 290-plus score and still lost the game. Which way you want: you can’t have it both ways,” Siddons reacted sharply on the criticism over his captain’s decision to bowl first, pointing out the dew factor as well as the statistics.
It seemed that the whole team rallied behind the decision and there were hints if Shakib wins the toss in the next game he will do the same.
