Miraz excited by Afghan challenge
Bangladesh all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz was heading towards the Academy ground with a bat in both of his hands. On his way, he panned towards the media personnel and said, “I better get some practice now, that’s the main thing right now.”
Afghanistan series, Asia Cup, a three-match One-Day International (ODI) series at home against New Zealand and then the ODI World Cup– this is what the Bangladesh team’s calendar looks like for the next few months. So naturally, the only thing on the minds of the Tigers right now is ODI cricket.
The ODI series against Afghanistan, starting on 5 July, and the Asia Cup in Pakistan-Sri Lanka will take place with the World Cup in mind.
Miraz bats lower down the order in ODIs for Bangladesh, and a quickfire innings from him could change the complexion of a match. So, the all-rounder is now paying extra attention to his batting.
On Wednesday, after the first day’s training of the national team before the Afghanistan series the all-rounder said, “Our World Cup preparation had begun a long time ago. We are training and playing according to our plans. We don’t have any Tests coming up, so we are only thinking about ODIs.”
Every team is expecting batting friendly tracks in the forthcoming World Cup in India, Bangladesh are no different, “We know how the games are like in the World Cup, the temperament required and how the runs flow in every match. We are trying to prepare accordingly. Look at the Ireland series, 300-plus totals were scored. In most matches in the World Cup, teams will score more than 300. Around 300-350 runs will be scored in every innings. We are focusing on how we can continuously score in that region,” said Miraz.
In the Afghanistan series, Bangladesh will naturally pay extra attention on spinners like Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi. Afghanistan’s spin attack is their best bet to put Bangladesh under pressure.
But from what Miraz said, it seemed like the Tigers were eagerly waiting for the Afghan challenge, “They are a really good white-ball team. They have some good spinners. But Alhamdulillah, we always win against them. We won the last series, we also beat them at the World Cup. They put us under pressure during those matches. But we always find a way to recover.”
Bangladesh is planning to produce sporting wickets for the Afghanistan series, keeping the World Cup in India in mind. Miraz also hinted that to be the case, “We will of course play on true wickets, to allow the batters to score runs and so that the bowlers can also learn how to take wickets on good wickets and contain runs. Hopefully, this will be our plan.”
But in cricket, even if you do everything right, your opponent can simply outdo you and hand you a defeat. So, a defeat doesn’t always mean that a team played poorly, reminded Miraz.
“We have been consistently playing well. Even if we play poorly or lose the series, it wouldn’t mean that we’ve become a bad side. The way we have played in the recent past, our position in the (ICC ODI Super League) points-table, indicate that we have been doing well as an ODI team. Even big teams are playing in the qualifiers. Alhamdulillah, we don’t have to play that this year.”