'Munim has a good chance tomorrow'

Bangladesh called up opener Munim Shahriar for the T20I series against Afghanistan, following his performances in the recently-concluded BPL. The batter showed that his intent was to remain aggressive with the bat during practice today. T20I skipper Mahmudullah Riyad later came to the press conference and said Munim has a good chance to make his debut tomorrow.

"Munim has a good chance tomorrow. I can't say exactly since I saw the wicket today and hopefully we will plan on how we can arrange our batting lineup," Mahmudullah said.

Munim was on fire with the bat, people scrambling to get out of the line of his shots despite nets being there. Even as he got out a few times, the intent to play his strokes never waned at practice. Bangladesh had been lacking in the Powerplay for a while in the T20I format and need someone to play without fear up top and take advantage of the field settings. Mahmudullah believes that the onus cannot only be on the top-order to score the runs that the team needs.

"About the top-order, I don't think you can only blame the top-order. As a batting unit we have to do well. Maybe top-order will not start well some days and maybe the middle-order will have to cover it. Some days top-order will get a good start and then the others will have to build on it. It's a team game. Consistency in T20 cricket is a difficult task but if we can back each other in the team, we have a good chance."

Munim starting will also mean that Mohammad Naim, who is Bangladesh's top-scorer in the format, may well be dropped tomorrow. Mahmudullah said that there was not intent to write off the batter despite a poor BPL.

"Regarding Naim, if you consider last year's score, he was the highest scorer in the team and probably he didn't bat too well in the BPL as we wanted. But he's a very good player and he will come back.

Asked if he is being written off, the skipper replied: "No no no. He's on track."