Mirpur, Mar 24:
Aware that another defeat would jeopardize their progress in the tournament, defending champions West Indies would aim to bring their campaign back on track as they face an inconsistent Bangladesh in the second group league encounter of the ICC World T20, here tomorrow.
While West Indies’ campaign begun on a wrong note losing to India, Bangladesh are also not in a great position having qualified on the basis of better net run-rate having lost to Hong Kong in the qualifying round.
Mushfiqur Rahim and his boys have job in hands as the cricket-crazy nation would want their “tigers” to roar against Chris Gayle and company.
Inconsistency has been Bangladesh’s primary problem in all these years. They are brilliant in one game and pretty ordinary in some others.
Skipper Rahim is however confident that his boys will come up trumps against a formidable Caribbean batting line-up.
“We have beaten them twice in T20 Internationals and there is no reason it won’t happen again. Yes, we were all shocked after losing to Hong Kong. But this is a new phase and we have nothing to lose from here on. The other teams will be wary about us and we have no pressure on us,” Rahim said at the pre-match event.
He was asked about Mashrafe Mortaza’s fitness, Rahim tried to sound confident.
“Knowing Mashrafe, even if he is 10 percent fit, he will make an effort to play tomorrow.”
Bangladesh’s success will depend a lot on how left-arm spinners Shakib al Hasan, Abdur Razzaq along with off-break bowler Mahmudullah performs on slowish track.
The performance of Indian spinners must have given them a lot of confidence.
Shakib in fact has a lot of knowledge about West Indian players, having played in Caribbean Premier League. Similarly Gayle’s inputs about Bangladeshi players will be invaluable as he has played two seasons in Bangladesh Premier League for Barishal Burners and Dhaka Gladiators. (PTI)
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