Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon oozes with confidence about the Tigers’ success in the upcoming Asia Cup despite the team’s vulnerability in the shortest format of the cricket. The Tigers won just two matches in the last 10 encounters including a 2-1 series defeat at the hands of Zimbabwe, which was their first ever series defeat in this format against the African opponents.
While the wound of that loss is still burning, Bangladesh will play the Asia Cup, which will be a T20 format this time, without some of their inform players who are out with injuries.
Bangladesh would have to contest against the teams like Afghanistan and Sri Lanka in the group phase of the Asia Cup and no doubt it will be an uphill task for them to move to the Super Four.
However, still Papon’s belief stemmed from the confidence of Shakib Al Hasan, who has the responsibility of leadership. According to him, Shakib has already spread the belief of victory in this team.
After many controversies, the board’s rationale behind making Shakib captain was experience. Papon said the ace allrounder is trying to spread that experience to everyone.
“I talk to Shakib regularly. I also talked to many players like Sohan-Liton Das. Today I wanted to know what he (Shakib) thinks. I saw one thing, Shakib is confident. Of course, he always has confidence. But at the moment it is more important to have it,” Papon said today at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium where he suddenly came to watch the practice of the Bangladesh players.
“I can win, I have to have this belief. I went to play… I don’t care about winning and losing. But it is important to have the belief that you can win. I was happy to see it. Winning or losing is not a big deal, I think, we should have the belief about our capability. And I am happy that Shakib has that belief. I felt that such an attitude of the captain is important before the big competition.”
Bangladesh played the final in the last two editions of Asia Cup in 2016 and 2018. Both times they lost the title to India. This time they have to go through a difficult path to move to the final.
After winning against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka in the group stage, they have to make it to the Super Four. Four teams will play against each other in Super Four. The top two teams on the basis of points will go to the final.
Although the task is difficult for Bangladesh, it is not impossible at all. Bangladesh has the experience of defeating every participating team in T20 format.
“I am really hopeful about our chances this time despite our mediocre performance in this format of late. Let’s see.”
