'Our pace attack can destroy any team'
There will be many factors at work when the Tigers take on India in the opening game of the three-match ODI series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium today. From the controversy at the MCG to the Tigers' task of securing qualification for the ICC Champions Trophy by keeping themselves within the top eight teams, there are plenty of reasons the Tigers will want to do well. Mixed with the specials emotions invoked by taking on India, an adrenaline-fuelled Tigers will undoubtedly be going for glory.
Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza admitted the presence of those pressures and said that he wanted his team to transcend those thoughts and focus on the matches one by one, and to continue their good showing which stemmed from the ICC World Cup in Australia-New Zealand.
Despite his side's stupendous 3-0 whitewash of Pakistan in the last home series, the inspirational skipper didn't hesitate to label India as favourites for this series while speaking at the pre-match press conference yesterday. However he also provided a bold statement in favour of his side, saying, "Bangladesh are one of the teams that are currently playing good cricket in ODIs. People are accepting that fact as we are playing a good brand of cricket and I don't think it's a pressure for us, rather it gives us confidence."
It's often heard from the Bangladesh players that playing against India always invokes special feelings in them but like his other teammates, Mashrafe was also not sure why that should happen. However, he said that success against a team like India would always make a big statement to the world cricket fraternity.
"To me it's like another series. Challenges are always there no matter who the opponents are, but I must say everybody puts a special emphasis when playing against India. India are such a team against whom your performance will be especially boosted and that's why everybody will try to give their best," said Mashrafe.
It will be a surprise if rain does not intervene during the ODI series, but the skipper made it clear that it would not be surprising to see the Tigers pull off victory against India in the series.
"I firmly believe that India are favourites, but when we enter the field we don't think who the favourites are. I hope we can play our best cricket against them. After the 2007 World Cup we started to believe that we could beat any team in the world. True, we lost many games since, but we always kept faith that we could beat anybody," said a confident Mashrafe.
Mashrafe said that there was no shortage of confidence among the players when it came to beating India. While the vaunted Indian batting line-up can be a real threat to Bangladesh, Mashrafe issued a warning saying that he has got a good pace attack with the ability to destroy any team.
THE NUMBERS |
5 more wickets and Shakib Al Hasan will become the second Bangladeshi after Abdur Razzak to take 200 ODI wickets. |
1 more ODI win and Bangladesh will overtake the West Indies and move up to the seventh spot in the ICC ODI rankings. |
0 Bangladeshi batsmen have scored ODI centuries against India in a bilateral series so far. Although Mushfiqur Rahim (117) and Alok Kapali (115) did score centuries in the Asia Cups of 2014 and 2008. |
100.8 is Virat Kohli's current batting average against Bangladesh. |
6 is the number of wickets Stuart Binny took against Bangladesh in the second ODI last year. His figures of 6 for 4, are the best ever bowling figures by an Indian. |
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