‘Fear of failure doesn’t bode well for T20 success’

Ahead of the T20 series, Bangladesh picked five new faces in their squad and there are suggestions that Tigers were experimenting too much with these new inclusions, but captain Mahmudullah Riyad suggested that it is better to play T20 cricket without fear of failure.

In every series, Bangladesh look to include one or two new players and give them an opportunity to get acquainted with international cricket, but this time around, one-third of the 15-member squad is composed of players who have never featured for the Tigers. There is also speculation that Tigers made such a decision because of their recent defeats to Sri Lanka. Mahmudullah however suggested that T20 is a different ball game and they are not thinking about what happened in the ODIs and the Tests.

"Regarding these things, I feel it is better not to think too much," opined Mahmudullah. He further suggested that decisions should not be guided by a fear of failure.

"All the new players that were included in the squad are very much well deserving."

"We always hear that T20 cricket is fearless cricket but if you think about fearless cricket from a position of failure then your success rate will decrease in T20 cricket.

"So, if you can overcome the fear of failure then I think we can expect good things from them," Mahmudullah said regarding the decisions to include five new faces.

Tigers suffered massively against Sri Lankan bowlers in the second Test because they were not confident enough to counter the bowlers by playing deliveries according to their merits. There was a preconditioned belief that they were eventually going to face a delivery which would be unplayable and that led to shots which were ungainly during certain match scenarios. It seems that the players and the team management have sat down to analyze some of the issues they faced. Fear of failure ultimately led the Tigers into false decisions in Tests, so, will they manage to overcome that fear?

"If you can overcome the fear of failure then I think we can expect good things from them (new players).

"From our part, the senior players and also the team management, we are trying to give the same message so that we don't play with a fear of failure and so that our target is to do something good," Mahmudullah added.