Bangladesh cricket team head coach Russell Domingo is surprised with their opposition New Zealand’s side in the forthcoming home series, but wants to focus on the improvement of his own team.
The Kiwis have decided to send a weaker side for the five-match T20I series, scheduled to take place early next month against the Tigers as most of their senior and established players are omitted from the tour.
In the time of pandemic, the Kiwis decided to form various teams for their forthcoming assignments like the bilateral series in Bangladesh and Pakistan, the World T20I in the United Arab Emirates and a full series in India.
Although the tour of Bangladesh is regarded as a good practice opportunity ahead of the World T20I, none of their players from the squad of the global tournament will feature in Bangladesh.
“I was a bit surprised having seen the New Zealand squad. Whomever they are sending I am not surprised with that but I am rather astonished to see none of them will play in the World T20I,” said Domingo to journalists Thursday.
The coach however, also added that many of the New Zealand players play in the Indian Premier League and other franchise-based tournaments around the world.
So, It is paramount for his disciples to play good cricket and gain confidence for the mega event.
Talking about confidence, the South African believes win is the biggest tonic for a team and despite widespread criticisms of slow, low, turning pitches, where Bangladesh humbled Australians to win 4-1 in the recently concluded bilateral T20I series, he thinks the series will help them a great deal for future.
Bangladesh won all three series - Test, ODI and T20I - during their Zimbabwe tour recently and continued the winning run by beating the Australian side in the shortest format for the first time.
Despite the win, apart from the criticisms of the pitch, which many believed would not help Bangladeshi players properly for future, the performances of batsmen, especially opener Saumya Sarkar, received harsh criticism from many corners.
However, the coach keeps the faith on his players and wants to see them thrive well in the forthcoming series on better tracks.
“Soumya was man of the series in the previous series. We must not discard players following one or two bad performances and must back them," said Domingo.
“I am not a grounds-man, preparing ground is not my job but I hope for good pitches. Although I also know it is difficult to prepare dry wickets with rain in this time of the year, so the wickets are expected to be slow and low."
The coach also informed that experienced campaigner Mushfiqur Rahim, who missed the Australia series for failing to comply with the bio-secured bubble rules, will return to the New Zealand series as will Liton Das.
But Tamim Iqbal, who is still healing his injuries, will miss the series.