Mahmudullah: Chance to give a good statement

Bangladesh stand-in T20I captain Mahmudullah believes the T20I series against Sri Lanka is a good chance for the Tigers to show their progress in the shortest format of the game and believes the home side will turn the table the table around after defeats in the final of the tri-nation ODI series and the two-match Test series. “T20I is different format. A different ball game. We have created good expectation by playing well in the last few years at home. Unfortunately we did not execute that in the recent two series. And also, I think there are questions over our ability in T20I cricket. So this series is a good chance for us to give a positive statement to the world about our T20I cricket. This series is important for us and we want to make a positive statement,” said Mahmudullah during the pre-match press conference Wednesday. Bangladesh are missing their star all-rounder Shakib al Hasan due to injury and have called six uncapped players to the squad. Mahmudullah thinks all of them deserve their spot in the national side. “All the new players deserve their place in the national squad. All of them are promising players. Everybody performed well in the recently concluded BPL (Bangladesh Premier League) 5. I hope they will keep up their good performance in international cricket as well,” said Mahmudullah. “Whoever performs well in the series will definitely get chance in future. As I said, all the newcomers are well deserving of their places. We have the World T20 coming in 2020. We have to find a balanced side for T20Is,” he added.

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The Tigers skipper believes their attitude of playing fearless cricket is required to bring success in the format and as a captain, he wants to give freedom to his players. “I think fearless cricket should be played in T20I format. If you think about failure then the chance of winning becomes less in T20I cricket. If we overcome the fear of failure then we can perform well and produce good result. I am trying to convey the message to the players about playing with positive mindset rather than thinking too much about failure,” he explained. “As I have been assigned the captain, I will try my best to bring out the best from players. I always believe in giving freedom to the players particularly in T20I format. Otherwise, it becomes difficult. There are a few new faces in our team. We will try to give them less pressure. Moreover, there are some experienced players in our side. And together, we will try to play our best cricket. “We don’t want to worry too much about wicket. It may create more pressure on us. We need to adjust to the wicket and condition as soon as possible in order to bring positive result,” he added. Bangladesh lost both the tri-series and Test series but the Tigers camp is hopeful that they will bounce back in the T20I series. “I always highly rate our team in home series whoever the opponent are. Although we have not performed well in the tri-series and Test series, we are very much hopeful about the upcoming T20I series. I believe we will play better cricket and turn around in the next two matches,” Mahmudullah concluded.