Tigers primed for T20 success

There are very few who would have foreseen Mahmudullah Riyad going to Australia-New Zealand last year and scoring the first hundred for Bangladesh in World Cups, and fewer still would have thought that he would go on to become the first Bangladeshi to score consecutive tons in the showpiece event.  Before embarking on the trip down under the Tigers made a lot of promises as usual, but who actually could have believed that Bangladesh would make it to the quarterfinals and ultimately be lauded by pundits for the brand of cricket they played.  One can argue that all these were stories in 50-over cricket, which is the Tigers' most favoured format, and so it would be unwise to invoke those memories before the Tigers face the challenge of T20 cricket; a format with which Mashrafe Bin Mortaza's brigade is yet to be comfortable.

But take it from Riyad, there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful ahead of their Asia Cup campaign that will begin with the match against India at Mirpur tomorrow.  Like his silky batting the experienced batsman exuded confidence with a sweet smile while talking to reporters after training at the Mirpur Indoors yesterday.  “We will light up (in the T20 format),” a bold statement came from the history-maker, who added: “I hope we will be able to overcome the shakiness in the T20 format during the Asia Cup.”

He promised that they will emerge as a different team in T20 cricket in the coming challenges and will play aggressive cricket. When asked from where he received the confidence, Riyad said: “It's all about self-confidence. At this moment we are very much confident. We are hopeful that we will be able to play a different brand of cricket in the T20 format with the confidence. Everybody says that we are not a good team in T20 cricket, so it's our challenge to prove ourselves.”

He pointed to their good preparations as another reason to be confident. “We are well prepared to take on the challenge. We took good preparations in Khulna and Chittagong and practised in match scenarios. We will fight for the trophy but we will need a good start. So we are looking forward to a good start against India in the opening match.”

It was evident that Bangladesh has yet to learn certain T20 skills, such as how to pace an innings, so it was cause for minor confusion when Riyad said that they will play aggressive cricket. “Whenever I go to the middle I will try to hit the first ball for six (smiles). Anyway in T20 cricket not only the batsman but also the bowlers should be crafty and they should understand the situation.  So the main thing is that we should play according to the situation,” he explained.

It was not possible to finish yesterday's proceedings without mention of the achievement of Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who is going to become a UNDP goodwill ambassador. “Congratulations to Mashrafe bhai. He is a champion leader. His leadership is unique and simply, you can't explain it,” praised Riyad adding that, “If we want to give him any trophy then nothing would be bigger than the Asia Cup and the World Cup. So we will try to play for him.”