Mahedi ready to fill seniors' shoes in Zimbabwe

Bangladesh all-rounder Mahedi Hasan said he is confident about taking up a more significant role in the national team in the absence of the senior players in the forthcoming tour to Zimbabwe, reports news agency UNB.

The spin bowling all-rounder is part of the Bangladesh team that is set to tour Zimbabwe for a three-match One-Day International (ODI) and three-match Twenty20 International series.

In the T20I series, Bangladesh will miss the service of senior players like Tamim Iqbal, who has recently retired from T20Is, and Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, who have been rested for this series.

Test captain Shakib Al Hasan will miss the entire trip to Zimbabwe as he has taken leave from the tour for personal reasons. In their absence, a young team will take on Zimbabwe in the shortest format of the game.

“It’s inevitable that the senior players will leave the game one day,” Mahedi told the reporters on Tuesday.

“And those who are juniors now will become seniors. When Shakib bhai led Bangladesh in the 2011 World Cup, he was only 22. So we will also become seniors, it’s just a matter of time.”

Mahedi believes the upcoming series is a great chance for the young team to flourish and make their own decisions.

“When we were newcomers, the senior players took all the responsibilities as parents do for young children,” he said. “Since we won’t get the service of the senior players, we will have to make our decisions. It’s a great chance for us to show our abilities.”

Mahedi played his maiden international match in 2018. So he has spent more than three years in international cricket. In that sense, he believes, he is not a young player like Munim Shahriar or Parvez Hossain Emon.

While Munim has played a few T20Is, Parvez is yet to get his international cap in any format of the game.

Bangladesh are not a good team in T20Is. In their recent series against the West Indies, Bangladesh lost by 2-0 in a three-match series with one match being washed away due to heavy rain.

Mahedi thinks Bangladeshi batters cannot be big hitters like their West Indian counterparts, but according to him, Bangladeshi batters can do better by improving their ability in taking singles and hitting boundaries.

Mahedi has played 34 T20Is and three ODIs so far. He has bagged 27 wickets in T20Is and scored 222 runs.