Bangladesh might have been convincingly beaten by South Africa in the Twenty20 series, but going ahead with the one-day international series they are a confident side. The Proteas crushed the confidence of the Bangladesh team in the shortest format, but Tamim Iqbal feels returning to their favourite format, the ODIs, will change the atmosphere in the team.
After been battered 2-0 in the Twenty20 series, the Tigers will take on the visitors in the first of the three-match ODI series at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium tomorrow. The worry, however, is whether Mashrafe bin Mortaza and his troop will be able to forget the daunting result and regain the momentum in the one-dayers.
“No team wants to start with defeats. At least one win in the Twenty20 series would have been good for us, our confidence would have been at different level then. But we lost both the games so it can be said that we are not fully boosted,” said Tamim yesterday. “Then again we have our favourite format in cricket (ODI) at the door and we are ready for it,” he added.
The home side bowlers did a decent job in the two T20s played as it was the below-par batting effort that gave birth to concerns. Beating India and Pakistan in recent times in the 50-over format needed extra work, but against South Africa “doing things right” is the only mantra to do well, Tamim believes.
“India and Pakistan are the strongest sides in the subcontinent. So we needed to do some extra work to win against them. South Africa comparatively is not that much strong but they are very professional side and that is their strength. So I think we do not need to put on extra effort against them for getting good results, doing one’s respective job should be enough which we have failed to do in the Twenty20 series,” he said.
Meanwhile, the absence of AB de Villiers from the Proteas line-up is a relief, Tamim expressed. It was known that De Villiers won’t be a part of the Test squad as he wanted to be beside his wife for the birth of his first child. The right-handed swashbuckling top order batsman would not have been available for the first one-day due to his suspension that he received during the World Cup and therefore it can be guessed that the Proteas selection committee opted to give their ODI skipper an early break and let their Test captain Hashim Amla lead the team in the rest of the tour.
“It is because he (De Villiers) is such kind of player who can finish a game single handedly. So a good part of the strategy is put behind players like AB. Now that will not happen as he is not there. The strategies can be distributed well I guess. Then again they have other good players too,” said Tamim.
