NEW DELHI, Nov 3, 2019 (BSS)-Amid the absence of some key players,
Bangladesh literally began their mission to shape their squad for the
upcoming World T20 with the three-match T20 International series against
India.
The Tigers are taking on their closed-door neighbors with hopes of
bringing some fresh air in the country’s most popular sport after a recent
series of off-the-field controversies and at the same time they will keep
their eyes to form a formidable squad for the global tournament, scheduled to
be held in Australia in 2020.
From players’ strike for renovating country’s cricket structure to the
ICC imposing a two-year ban on their regular Test and Twenty20 skipper Shakib
al Hasan for failing to report corrupt approaches of bookies, Bangladesh
cricket has faced a turbulent two weeks.
While Shakib is missing for his misdeeds, Tamim Iqbal skipped the tour
as he and his wife is expecting their second child. Another important cog
pace-bowling all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin had to miss the series due to his
recurring back injury.
Mahmudullah Riyad, who had previous experience of leading Bangladesh in
five Twenty20s and six Tests, was provided the captaincy role in Twenty20
format just a day before the team left for India.
Bangladesh so far played three T20 matches without Shakib and Tamim and
lost all the three matches. Nevertheless the Tigers now would hope that it is
not the case against their superior opponents.
India have never hosted Bangladesh for a full series and the first time
they do so, the welcome has been far from pleasing for the visitors and if
they want to visit regularly than they have to make their mark so that the
hosts are keen to play against them on regular basis.
“We know we have some drawbacks in the recent past while some of members
are missing due to injuries and other issues but that can be an opportunity
for others to grab,” Bangladesh chief selector Minhajul Abedin said ahead of
the series opener as he will be keenly watching the developments for getting
their acts together in the big show.
“We are looking forward to see how our T20 squad shapes up and how some
of our young cricketers respond under pressure. They will be challenged by
their Indian counterparts and we are looking forward to see how they take
this challenge,” he added.
From cricketing point of view Bangladesh will focus on their batting
department more than anything else. That is one area where they will have
some severe lacking as just one of their batsmen have a strike rate of more
than 135 since the last ICC T20 World Cup apart from Liton Das and against a
dominant Indian side, they’ll need all the batting firepower they can to
challenge the hosts.
“We are aware that our batsmen need to click from all cylinders. We will
try some new players in the series and see how they fill their roles in those
positions,” said Minhajul.
“We need to have someone settled at number three while our opening pair
also needs to be more consistent as they are the ones to lay the platform for
the others,” he said.
At the same time they will have chance to figure out who have the
ability to fill the all-round vacuum and make sure that they have the right
people in the right places because players excel in this shortest format with
their all-round ability.
“T20 is all about bits and pieces players and we have to make sure we
have couple of them in our squad. That is one area that we are looking at in
the upcoming series,” he said.
Minhajul added that they are also looking to see how Mahmudullah leads
the side considering his ability as a leader will be tested in the series.
“Naturally we want to see his captaincy skill though it is too early to
say whether he is our future captain and that can only be decided once we see
his leadership skill in the ongoing series,” he concluded.