Ganguly thinks Bangladesh can reach World Cup semifinals

India cricket team's former captain Sourav Ganguly said that Bangladesh has a bright chance to make it to the knockout stage of the upcoming ICC ODI World Cup which is scheduled to take place in India later this year.

The 50-year-old, while on a short trip to Bangladesh, attended the inauguration ceremony of the DNCC Mayor Cup 2023 on Thursday and inaugurated a branch of a multinational bank in the capital as the chief guest.

On the second day of his visit, the 'Prince of Kolkata' paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence, Gono Bhaban, where he was accompanied by his wife Dona Ganguly and BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon.

Sourav then visited his long-time friend and BCB director Iftekhar Ahmed Mithu's house where he expressed his views on Bangladesh cricket while talking to media.

"I have huge expectations (of Bangladesh's chance in the upcoming ODI World Cup). I expect them to reach the quarterfinal or the semifinal stage of the tournament if they have a bit of luck and good form. Especially if the spinners and the pacers have good form, they can reach the quarter or even the semifinals," Sourav told the media.

However, according to the former BCCI president, the Tigers still need to improve in the Test and T20I formats.

"They need to improve in the T20 format as they require power-hitting which means heavy hitting like what Hardhik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav or England's Jos Buttler and Australia's Glenn Maxwell do in the T20s. I think Chandika Hathurusingha has joined as the new coach and maybe it will take some time. But T20 cricket is a very important format. You have a lot of talent; it's just you need the power-hitting.

"In Test cricket, bowling department is very crucial and also the batting. You need to have some courageous batting on green and bouncy tracks. You have to play in such conditions and I think there should be an educational programme for Bangladesh in Test cricket. You need to prepare players from the under-19 stage on how to play on seaming and bouncy pitches," he added.