BCB wants to continue with same squad
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka in Sylhet to play second T20 Sunday
Sports Reporter
Bangladesh named an unchanged 16-member squad yesterday for the second and series deciding T20 International against Sri Lanka, keeping the trust on the new players who apart from left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam Apu failed to perform anything worthy as of now.
The final T20 is on Sunday at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, with which the Lankan side will end their 40-day long Bangladesh tour. Both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka teams have arrived in Sylhet yesterday afternoon.
As a tour sweep for Sri Lanka is on the cards following their tri-nation one-day tournament and Test series triumph, Bangladesh still remain unfazed and decided to give the inexperienced players a long run in a bid to make the T20 players pool bigger one given they would play more matches in this format in the coming days.
Mahmudullah Riyad will lead the side as usually in absence of Shakib Al Hasan who failed to get his fitness adequately. But Tamim Iqbal who missed the first T20, owing to his bicep injury could make a comeback, sources said.
Nazmul Islam Apu bowled brilliantly but other bowlers couldnt back him, said stand-in captain Mahmudullah. However the new players need times to adjust. As early as they can adjust with the international game, they will help their cause. But we need to give them enough matches to prove their potential. You cant decide on their fate on the basis of just one game.
The result in the first T20 was frustrating one, given they recorded their highest T20 total but still ended being on the losing-side. For only the fourth time in T20I cricket, Bangladesh brought up 100 runs in the first 10 overs and finally compiled 193 for five, eclipsing their previous best 190 for five against Ireland in 2012.
When two of their top-order batsmen strung important partnerships together as they made their personal best scores (Mushfiqur Rahim 66 not out and Soumya Sarkar 51), all of that was upended within an hour of ordinary bowling: they conceded 13 fours in the first six overs. And that set the tone, as Sri Lanka won with 20 balls to spare.
Bangladesh missed Shakib Al Hasan but they would have hoped the other seniors Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel Hossain could make up for their captains absence. But apart from debutant Nazmul Islam Apu, none of the bowlers conceded anything less than 10.66 runs per over.
As a bowling group, we have to find out how and where to bowl in certain times, Mahmudullah, the stand-in captain, said. We have to create pressure with dot balls. You have to bowl all out in these wickets - either bowl yorkers or proper bouncers - according to the strength of the batsmen.
We could have made a little more [runs] but I still felt 193 was a good score. But our bowlers didnt bowl in the right lengths. The line was still fine. We also didnt take early wickets which is always important.
According to Mahmudullah Riyad they lacked the skill of executing Yorkers at the death overs, a skill which Sri Lanka used to precision to prevent Bangladesh from taking the score past 200. He said this was the arena on Thursdays match that made the difference.
You can say we are behind Sri Lanka in terms of results. They bowled the yorkers very well towards the end. We had to work hard to find runs. Mushfiqur struck his reverse sweeps very well, especially against the full balls. Our bowlers couldnt quite bowl that length. We should have defended 193, he remarked.
