Tigresses ready for Irish challenge

Bangladesh women's team will focus more on playing match by match rather than concentrating on direct qualification to the upcoming World Cup when they take on their Irish counterparts in the opening WODI of the three-match series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur today.

The match is scheduled to start at 10:00am and will be telecast live on T Sports.

Bangladesh will start the crucial series knowing that only a 3-0 outcome in their favour will keep them in the hunt for a direct World Cup qualification place but skipper Nigar Sultana Joty claims she doesn't want to think too far and wants to dominate their opponents at their own backyard.

"World Cup thought is still far away. We need to give attention match by match. We have two bilateral series [now against Ireland and then West Indies]. It's important to take points," Joty told reporters in the pre-series press conference in Mirpur yesterday.

The Tigresses have had a forgetful year so far, especially in the 50-over format where they lost all their three games. The hosts will be back in the format for the first time since a home series against Australia in March.

Bangladesh will look to end their misery against Ireland, with whom they have a 3-1 record in this format. Knowing that a majority of the opposition players don't have the experience of playing in Bangladesh, Joty expressed her confidence of doing well in the series. However, she was concerned about their 'continuous batting failure'.

"As we will be playing on our home soil, we will be stronger…We will try to dominate them. Ireland are ranked below us. If we can't play against them dominantly, how can we fight keeping eye-on-eye against big teams?" Joty questioned.

Ireland have beaten England both in WODIs and WT20Is in recent months while having also defeated Sri Lanka 2-1 in the preceding ODI series.

Although the Irish side doesn't have much experience of playing in Bangladesh, skipper Gaby Lewis sounded confident about overcoming the hosts' challenge.

"I think Bangladesh are a team that we've been really competitive with over the years, and so, we're looking forward to coming up against them again. It's been a while since we've played them and we've taken great confidence from the summer with our success against Sri Lanka, England, and we're ready to dominate the series," she said, adding that they are ready for the spin challenge in Bangladesh.

"I think it's just about adapting. We obviously don't know how the pitch is going to play, but we predict a good bit of spin and judging by their team, they like to play a spin-heavy XI. So that's something that we have focused on and we've been working really hard on our spin game. And yeah, we're ready for tomorrow," she concluded.