‘Pressure lets me give back to my team’

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is in talks with its Afghan counterparts to arrange a three-match ODI series as part of the national team's preparation for next year's ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan.

The Tigers are scheduled to travel to the Caribbean islands in November to play two Tests, three ODIs, and three T20Is against the West Indies. At the moment, this is the only ODI series scheduled for the Tigers before the Champions Trophy, slated to begin next February.

To make up for the lack of 50-over fixtures before the marquee event, BCB board president Faruque Ahmed said on Thursday that the board hopes to arrange three more ODIs against Afghanistan in the UAE before the series against the Windies.

Bangladesh were scheduled to play an all-format series against Afghanistan in Greater Noida, India in July this year but that series got rescheduled. The proposed ODI series between the sides, however, is not part of that tour and will be a separate series, BCB's cricket operations in-charge Shahriar Nafees confirmed The Daily Star on Friday.

"We are in the final phase of discussion regarding the ODI series with the Afghanistan Cricket Board. This is not an FTP-scheduled series. We will play the FTP scheduled matches in two phases, next year and in 2026," Nafees said.

"We have only three ODIs against West Indies before going into the Champions Trophy. So we are planning to hold the matches to give our players enough 50-over matches before the ICC event," Nafees added.

Nafees also informed that the board will receive confirmation this week regarding the two-Test series against South Africa next month.

Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistan captain, took the blame for his team's poor show at the Asia Cup, but said that there's time to rebuild the team for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

A convincing eight-wicket win over Hong Kong in the tournament opener suggested Pakistan were going to be a force. But it was followed by an eight-wicket defeat to India, and then, following a last-over win over Afghanistan in the Super Fours, losses to India and Bangladesh. As a result, Pakistan crashed out of the tournament they have won twice in the past.

"Yes, our performance was very poor. Our batting wasn't good, and we dropped a lot of catches. Our bowling was also patchy, and that's the reason we are out of the tournament," accepted Ahmed, who had a poor run with the bat himself, scoring 68 runs in four innings.

"I still believe we have a lot of talented players in the team. Look at Fakhar Zaman. Though he didn't have a good tournament, we have to back him. Babar Azam too. Imam has, thankfully, done well, but there's also Shadab and Hasan. We have to back them and take them along with us. We have to look at our bench too. We have a pool of players, and by the time the World Cup comes, we'll have a good team," said Ahmed.

"The World Cup is quite some time away, we have other engagements before that. Australia are coming, and then there's New Zealand. So we have to review our performance and see where we are falling short.

"We are losing too many wickets early, and the middle order has had to deal with the new ball, which isn't easy, and hitting quickly in the end isn't easy on these pitches. We'll have to get together and fix these issues."

While Ahmed called the performance 'alarming', he added, "There's no need to press the panic button. Yes, we have made mistakes as a team, and as a captain, I know that I didn't do well. But no need to panic, we need to back the players, look at the positions and see if there are people outside the team who can come in."

Bangladesh cricket team arrived in Antigua and Barbuda from St.Vincent and Grenadines earlier today to play their T20 World Cup 2024 Super 8 stage matches against Australia and India at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on June 21 and June 22 respectively. 

The Tigers sealed qualification to the Super 8s following their 21-run win against Nepal at the Arnos Vale Stadium on Monday and will make a return to the venue to face Afghanistan in their final Super 8 encounter on June 25.  

The Najmul Hossain Shanto-led side were seeded into Group 1 of the Super 8s alongside India, Australia, and Afghanistan.

Photo: BCB

Photo: BCB

Photo: BCB

Photo: BCB

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has requested the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) to postpone next month's white-ball series to be played in Greater Noida between July 25 and August 6. 

The ACB could not confirm the venues for the series three months ago and BCB had assumed that the series was not going to materialise. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reportedly allocated two venues for the series, one in Kanpur and another in Greater Noida.

But the BCB did not keep the series in their own scheduling following an earlier postponement and set their calendars to prepare for upcoming tours in Pakistan and India

"We are not ready for the series and we have made plans for training and preparation before heading to Pakistan and India," a top BCB official told The Daily Star today.

Bangladesh are set to play Pakistan in a two-match Test series in August-September as per the FTP calendar and are also scheduled to tour India for two Tests and three T20Is in September-October.

Better showing in this World Test Championship cycle has been on the agenda for Bangladesh and players like Mushfiqur Rahim, Mominul Haque and Mehedi Hasan Miraz have been training with Bangladesh Tigers alongside emerging players in a camp which began on May 26 in Mirpur before moving to Sylhet.

Bangladesh are expected to face a stiffer challenge in their do-or-die Asia Cup match against Afghanistan at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore today.

Batting remained the biggest area of concern -- as evidenced by a lacklustre performance in the first game which saw the Tigers get bundled for a meek 164 against a relatively inexperienced Sri Lankan bowling attack. When it comes to Afghanistan, who possess two world-class spinners in Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, they are always in contention to make even the in-form teams work for their runs.

However, it appears that Fazalhaq Farooqi could pose a greater threat for the Tigers' vulnerable top-order. Farooqi, 22, has been lethal against Bangladesh in recent times, having contributed with eight scalps and two three-wicket hauls in their 2-1 away series win against the Tigers in July this year.

Overall, Farooqi had 14 wickets in six games against Bangladesh, at an economy of 4.46. The left-arm seamer not only provided the early breakthrough but also left the Tigers batters perplexed with his lethal full-pitched deliveries swinging both ways.

Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha is well-aware of the Afghan bowling unit's threat, but is optimistic that the Tigers batters will be able to emerge unscathed in the vital Asia Cup match.

"Afghanistan's bowling attack is one the best in the world and definitely it's a challenge. We have played against them recently and our players had some success. So, it all depends on the day how you perform. We are very much aware of the challenge that we are going to face," Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha told the media yesterday.

As the game will be played in Lahore's Gaddafi stadium, where pacers have historically enjoyed a clear edge over spinners in 64 ODIs -- having registered 519 scalps against 239 -- it would be intriguing to see how the Bangladesh batters negotiate someone like Farooqi.

Given the conditions against Afghanistan in store, it will be fascinating to watch if the Bangladesh team management chooses a different team combination.

"We just arrived here and we haven't seen the wicket yet. Definitely if the condition and pitch here is different, we will definitely think about a different combination," Hathurusingha said.

Bangladesh will need to beat Afghanistan to keep their dreams of qualifying for the Super Four stage alive, but they will also need to rely on the net run-rate to progress.

"Before we think about the final, we need to get to the second round. So, this game is very important because of what happened in the last game against Sri Lanka.

"So, we know this is a must-win game for us and we certainly didn't play to our potential in the last game and we didn't represent ourselves well enough. But we are confident to bring our A game against Afghanistan tomorrow [today]," said the Bangladesh coach.