The first practice match is obviously important for the Tigers as they will definitely want to start the campaign on a high note after finishing the tri-series so well
Bangladesh are gearing up to play their first warm-up game of the 2019 World Cup against Pakistan at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, Wales Sunday.
Bangladesh team practiced at the venue in the afternoon session ahead of their first official practice match. All the 15 members of the World Cup squad took part in the training session and toiled hard.
The Tigers started with a regular warm-up session at 2pm local time before taking part in an intense net session near the center wickets.
Bangladesh are in confident mood as they recently won the tri-nation ODI series in Ireland, beating the West Indies thrice and host Ireland once. They were the unbeaten champion there, and dominated all their four games.
Opener Soumya Sarkar is in good form, along with the other top-order batsmen. The batting looked really positive in the Ireland tour as Bangladesh won all of their matches chasing.
The Tigers faced a difficult task to chase down the target in the final as they needed 210 in 25 overs. However, they batted brilliantly and did the job, in the process winning a multi-nation international tournament for the first time in their history.
Surely that series win will give confidence to the Tigers camp for the World Cup in England and Wales.
And after a long wait, the World Cup has finally arrived.
The first practice match is obviously important for the Tigers as they will definitely want to start the campaign on a high note after finishing the tri-series so well.
The World Cup will be a lot more difficult, probably the most challenging in recent times as the 10 best teams are participating here. And to embrace the challenge, a good start is always important.
Although Bangladesh’s World Cup mission will start next Sunday against South Africa, the two warm-up games against Pakistan and India are equally important as the team management will definitely try to extract some positive outcomes from these two matches.
“We have very little time, we have around five days before the main match. Our preparation is very important, and I think that the practice games we have are very important for us, because if it takes us two matches to get used to the conditions here, it will be easy for us if we can use the warm-up matches to adapt and adjust. So the practice games are really important for us to give our 100% and improve in areas where we have some lackings,” said all-rounder Mehedi Hasan Miraz during their practice session at Sophia Gardens Saturday.
Pakistan have already played a practice match prior to facing Bangladesh as they lost against Afghanistan by three wickets.
But Miraz informed that they are not taking this match lightly, despite its tag as a practice game, and that they are targeting a win.
“There is no question of being relaxed, because every match is always very important for us. If we can play well in the practice match and we prepare very well, then we can feel more comfortable in the big games. The World Cup matches will be high-voltage and there will be a lot of pressure. If we can play our best and give our 100% here, then the job will become easier over there in the World Cup matches,” he added.
The game will start at 10:30am local time, although there is a chance of shower in the afternoon.
Source: Dhaka Tribune.