Bangladesh national team head coach Chandika Hathurusingha said the team has prepared well for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup, scheduled to be held next month in the USA and the West Indies.
Bangladesh team are slated to leave Dhaka in the early hours of Thursday for the United States to play a three-match T20 International series with the hosts as build-up to the marquee event.
Hathurusingha while talking to the media at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium informed that the preparation has been good.
Bangladesh have just finished a five-T20I series against Zimbabwe at home.
The Tigers won the series 4-1.
Despite the series win, Bangladesh team have been part of wide discussions for their below par performance with the bat.
“Our preparation, I thought, was very good. We had a good camp in Chittagong and then we played five games against Zimbabwe. So, in those five games, we had the opportunity to give most of the players exposure in certain situations,” said Hathurusingha.
Hathurusingha admitted of having concern with some individual performances.
“There's a little bit of concern about a few individual performances but other than that, I thought it was good preparation. We got a lot out of it,” said the former Sri Lankan cricketer.
Since the declaration of the Bangladesh squad for the T20 World Cup, the omission of all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin, despite being part of the provisional team for the world event, was much talked about.
Another fast-bowling all-rounder Tanzim Hasan Sakib replaced Saifuddin in the main squad.
According to chief of the national selection panel Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu, Saifuddin failed to impress the selection group in the death overs in the Zimbabwe series.
Hathurusingha while speaking on the matter said: “I hope, yesterday (Tuesday), the selectors would have spoken about it but we gave both of them a good chance to perform in this series. What stood out for Sakib was that he's able to bowl a bit faster. He's quicker than Saifuddin. And then we put both of them in different situations, to bowl at the start and the middle and the death. We were happy with how Sakib bowls under pressure and he has been in the team for a long time, so, that counted for him.”
Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup are in Group D with South Africa, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, and Nepal.
The team in Red-Green will begin their campaign taking on the Lankans on June 8 in Dallas, USA.
“I understand as a country now, we have high aspiration because we have been playing good cricket generally out of ICC events. It's the same. We have high expectation as players and the staff and as well as the fans and the country. The first step is to get through this difficult group stage. We are in a very strong group. Then we take, if we get through that one, that's the main target, first one, and then we'll take it from there,” said Hathurusingha, revealing his expectation.
