'We're at 8, seniors at 20'

The fact of the young players lagging far behind the five senior stalwarts in terms of contribution to the team's success has become a talking point in Bangladesh cricket.

It seems that players like Soumya Sarkar and Sabbir Rahman lack the will to improve that has become the hallmark of Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad, which is why the team's success is still overly dependent on the strength of these five pillars. Soumya believed that there was a logic behind the criticism against the young players.

"We cannot say the young players are not contributing anything, but it's definitely less than them [seniors]. The question would not be raised if the difference had been 19/20 between the junior and senior players but it's actually 8/20. It will be helpful for them [seniors] if we can reach near their level," said Soumya while talking to reporters yesterday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

"It's always a challenge [the performance of the seniors] for the young players. I believe our result will be better if we can support the seniors more," he added. The left-hander said that he had been working on his batting to overcome a long bad patch but reminded that different batsmen have different approaches.

"I always hit the bad ball. I play power cricket," he said. He also informed that he has no problem with his batting position as his main motto was to contribute to the team.

From the beginning of the camp for next month's Asia Cup, the players have been singing a positive song regarding Bangladesh's chances in the tournament in UAE and Soumya was no exception yesterday as he put the Tigers ahead in the group matches against Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. "The most important thing is that we know how to play one-day cricket," said a confident Soumya.

"I definitely put Bangladesh ahead in the group. If you consider our last performance we are well ahead of Sri Lanka and Afghanistan," he added. Although Afghanistan's spin attack was a cause for concern in their last meeting in the T20I series in Dehradun, Soumya ruled out the fear factor in the Asia Cup because batsmen get the opportunity to build innings in the 50-over format. "So, I am hopeful their spin will not be successful in the Asia Cup."

Some disciplinary issues has rocked the cricket arena recently but Soumya said that they were only focusing on the Asia Cup.