Bangladesh will take on Sri Lanka in their first warm-up game of the ICC Cricket World Cup tomorrow (Friday) at Guwahati at a moment when the country’s cricket is in deep trouble, following Tamim Iqbal’s omission from the World Cup squad and later his outburst towards team management and board.
The problem further deepened when Shakib Al Hasan’s exclusive interview was aired on a private TV channel T Sports. The captain slammed Tamim by labeling his attitude ‘childish’. He also lambasted Tamim for putting himself ahead of the team’s needs.
The spat of the country’s two biggest stars naturally forced the whole country to become sharply divided. And those debates indeed put Bangladesh’s dismal performance behind them.
After a mixed-bag Asia Cup, where they finally saved their face by beating India, they lost a three-match series by 2-0 to New Zealand. It was their first series defeat at the hands of Black Caps since 2013.
But what is more ominous sign is that Bangladesh this year lost three ODI series at home den. It is particularly horrible given the fact that they had lost just one series at home between 2015 -2022.
In the wake of this complex situation, Bangladesh are going to play a warm-up game, which starts at 2.30 PM.
Even though the result of the warm-up game matters little, for Bangladesh it’s a different case. They indeed can’t afford another loss, leading up to the World Cup. They would like to win both warm-up games (next against England on October 2) before playing the tournament opener against Afghanistan on October 7.
Bangladesh reached Guwahati last night and attended a practice session today. As per the practice video sent by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), captain Shakib Al Hasan is seen briefing the players ahead of the practice session, which is a rare scenario.
But given the ongoing situation of the country’s cricket, this brief was imperative and looked normal as the captain needed to keep the players free from all sorts of anxiety ahead of a very crucial event.
Source - The Business Standard
--Agencies
