A fruitful 2015 means Bangladesh have more to prove in this new year filled with international cricket. The second most successful unit in the circuit last year, the Tigers began their preparation for the upcoming World Twenty20 through a fitness session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.
“I think we now have a big responsibility to continue our good run and now there is no chance to look back and [only] move forward and we have to achieve that by working harder. We are playing consistent cricket at the moment and we have raised the bar of expectation. We all want to give our best in the coming days as well,” said the Bangladesh middle-order batsman Mahmudullah who slammed back-to-back centuries in the World Cup in 2015.
Shakib al Hasan is still in USA with his family while left-handed opening batsman Imrul Kayes also missed out the first day of the 27-member preliminary squad training session. The Tigers will kick off the year with Twenty20s against Zimbabwe next week before competing in the T20 Asia Cup in March followed by the ICC World T20 in India.
Even though Bangladesh showed immense progress in the one-day internationals, they are yet to unlock the T20 code and maintain a consistency in the shortest format. It remains a big challenge for the Bengal Tigers admits Mahmudullah while he believes the upcoming matches will serve as a good warm-up before the mega event.
“We have quite a few tournaments this year starting with the home series against Zimbabwe followed by Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup. I think we will get enough match practice before going for the T20 World Cup,” he said.
Leading Barisal Bulls the right-handed finished amongst the top five run getters in the Bangladesh Premier League 3 as Mahmudullah is confident of making a good impact with the bat, given that the team management feels his worth in the top half of the Tigers batting.
