Bangladesh cricketers (From L-R) Al-Amin Hossain, Abu Hider, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman and Nasir Hossain share a light moment on the sideline of a training session at the BCB Academy cricket ground in Mirpur on Monday. — Sourav Losker
Bangladesh are not worried too much about their opening game against India in the Asia Cup Twenty20 tournament as they are confident of their ability, said all-rounder Mahmudullah on Monday.
The Tigers will begin their campaign for the 13th edition of the tournament on February 24 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
The Asian Cricket Council has added some flexibility to tournament, allowing its format to be switched to Twenty20 from one-day international.
As a result the tournament will be held in Twenty20 format for the first time, making it as the perfect build up to the ICC World Twenty20.
India will start the tournament as firm favourites having conquered Australia Down Under and beaten Sri Lanka, the defending champions, at home.
The change in format made things tougher for the Tigers, who are still ranked among the minnows in the shortest format of the game despite a dream run in the preceding year at ODI.
A confident start in the opener is expected to provide the hosts the much required momentum.
Mahmudullah said they are feeling no pressure despite India’s status as the pre-tournament favourites.
‘We are very relaxed,’ said the all-rounder after a training session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Monday. ‘We worked hard with our fitness and skill and hopefully we will be able to make a good start.
‘At present they are playing well, so we need to perform to our best to beat them. We are only thinking about us at the moment.
‘If we can make that start and gather the momentum it will help us going into the series through match by match,’ he said.
‘Hopefully we can get over the [Twnety20] shakiness through this Asia Cup,’ he added.
The all-rounder said that though they are not playing competitive cricket at the moment they are confident of doing well as they had some good training session ahead of the tournament.
After the Zimbabwe series, Bangladesh had intense training session at Khulna and Chittagong to develop their skills in the Twenty20 format and according to Mahmudullah they are ready to deliver.
‘Over all we had some good preparation at Khulna and Chittagong.
‘We played four matches against Zimbabwe and later we needed some time to work with our shortcomings and develop our skills.
‘We could not have any better time to prepare ourselves. We needed to work out on some areas and we did that,’ he said.
‘Now we need to perform and execute it.’
Mahmudullah added that he is ready to fire from the word go as it is must to get success in this format and will take his chances as per requirement.
‘Whenever I will go to bat I will try to hit a six in the first ball,’ said Mahmudullah.
‘We need to be bit more tactical as a wicket and a run out or a six can change the momentum,’ he said.
‘We are confident to play a different brand of cricket,’ he said.
Source: New Age
