No room for fear: Mashrafe

Bangladesh T20I skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has urged his players not to think about the side's previous records against South Africa and play fearless cricket in the upcoming series.

The Proteas have a number of seasoned T20 campaigners in their side and, except for the lone defeat in the West Indies in the 2007 World Cup, have thoroughly enjoyed playing against Bangladesh.

Mashrafe though wasn't going to let the past bother him.

"They haven't seen how we have played recently, but we see them all the time. I think they don't have time to see us either," quipped Mashrafe at the pre-match press conference today afternoon in Mirpur.

"Yes record-wise we are in a bad situation. But that is a thing of the past. Now we are playing well as a team. I am not saying that we will surely achieve a lot but we have done well.

"The only option for us is to play confidently. There is no other option. If we feel scared then its good to sit at home. Yes, one can be a little scared but he should use that feeling to perform better. When you enter the field you should keep the fear factor outside and concentrate on your own performance. That's it," added the confident skipper.

While the skipper admitted that the visitors were ahead in all three departments, he believed that the Tigers would be able to come up with positive results.

"They can restrict us with their batting, bowling and fielding. They are ahead of us. They have many T20 specialists, but we just have one player who has been playing around the world.

"But I believe that as a group if we can hold on to the style of play that we have been playing in the last few months, we can do well. T20 cricket is all about freedom, guts and how you use your head," said Mashrafe.

The Bangladesh skipper didn't indicate as to what kind of a bowling attack the Tigers would go into the match with. However, it is likely that the Tigers will play two spinners including Shakib Al Hasan. The other spot could be a battle between leg-spinner Jubair Hossain and off-spinner Shohag Gazi.

South Africa players warm up before practice at Mirpur stadium. Photo: STAR

An equally confident Faf du Plessis has said that they are hoping to begin their cricket season on a high with this tour. The Proteas raced through a thumping win in the practice match at Fatullah yesterday.

However, du Plessis wasn't going to get carried away with that win.

"Prettty good to have had a good start yesterday but we also appreciate that their main side will be a lot harder. Yesterday was just a basic practice session for us.

"We adjusted to the heat, so it was a pretty good day yesterday. But we are not going to celebrate too much knowing that tomorrow will be a lot more difficult," said Faf.

While he was aware of the transitions that this Bangladeshi side has made over the last six months, he admitted that his side didn't know a lot about the newer players who joined Bangladesh's team. Not knowing much about them, according to the player, could prove to be an advantage for the hosts.

"The nice thing about the Bangladeshi team at the moment is the new guys coming through and that can sometimes in T20 cricket be dangerous, because you haven't seen or played against them.

"T20 cricket is a lot shorter. You don't have two overs where you can as a batsman look the bowler out and then try to play him differently. You have to make decisions a lot quicker. Sometimes the unknown is also very dangerous," said Faf.

The Proteas are planning to change things a big in their batting order and may open with AB de Villiers. While the dashing batsman has opened 37 times in ODIs, he has opened just once in T20Is.

It also won't be a surprise if South Africa includes their uncapped leg-spinner Eddie Leie, who had impressed many during the practice match at Fatullah. He was the top T20 wicket taker in a recently held T20 domestic competition in South Africa and, going by the practice match at Fatullah, seems to have a well-disguised googly.

The first T20I will begin at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium at Mirpur tomorrow at one pm.

Bangladesh squad

Mashrafe Mortaza (c), Shakib Al Hasan (vc), Arafat Sunny, Jubair Hossain, Litton Das (wk), Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mustafizur Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Rony Talukdar, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shohag Gazi, Soumya Sarker, Tamim Iqbal

South Africa squad

Faf du Plessis (c), Kyle Abbott, Quinton de Kock (wk), AB de Villiers, Jean-Paul Duminy, Beuran Hendricks, Eddie Leie, David Miller, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, David Wiese