Bangladesh paceman Taskin Ahmed is thrilled at the prospect of again facing India, who were the opponents on his One-Day International (ODI) debut. The 20-year old played his first ODI against the then reigning World Champions on June 17 last year. He returned 5-28, his best ODI figures. Bangladesh, however, went on to lose the match here but the career-best performance is fuelling the tall pacer’s enthusiasm, reports bdnews24.com.
“Memories against India will work as inspiration. But (we) have to start the game from the scratch on the field. Now (we) have to play well all over again,” Taskin said.
Bangladesh and India will lock horns in a three-match ODI series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium with the first match on Thursday. Taskin has 19 wickets in 12 matches, including 10 wickets in three matches against India, at an average of 11.20.
Bangladesh played the knockout stages for the first time in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. They bowed out of the showcase event, losing to India in the quarterfinals.
Taskin dreams of a different result in this series. “Maybe we can do it this time. Our team is stronger than before. Everyone is playing well. If we can maintain the consistency, something good will happen,” said the fast bowler.
Taskin thinks the pace unit needs to do well against India to have any chance of winning.
“Our pacers did very well in the Pakistan series. I hope everyone will do well this time around as well. India are one of the best teams in the world. Their batting is significantly stronger in the sub-continent. Our pacers have to do well against them,” concluded Taskin.
Mortaza upbeat about chances of beating India
Bangladesh ODI skipper Mashrafe Mortaza says they are going into the three-match series opener with the belief that they have the wherewithal to beat India in Thursday’s game.
Mortaza said his side has gone from strength-to-strength in the last few years and that gives them the confidence of playing hard against much fancied rival like India.
“I firmly believe India are favourites but when we get on the field, we don’t think who is favorite or who is not. I hope we can play our best cricket. After the 2007 World Cup, we started to believe that we can beat any team,” Mortaza said on the eve of the series-opener.
“We never lost our mental strength despite losing matches. Of course, if we are playing against a higher-ranked team they will be the favourites but we don’t think that we can’t beat them,” Mortaza added. The Bangladesh captain said the recent-past records are encouraging for them and all they need is to fire in unison.
“Bangladesh is one of the teams doing well in ODIs right now apart from Australia, England, India and New Zealand. I have told the boys to look at the statistics that we are not far behind any of these teams.
“Everyone believes in themselves. We have to show it on the field, but this is no pressure. One or two could have a bad time but if many of us are in form, we can have a good time,” he said. The skipper wants his players to adopt the one-match-at-one-time approach.
“We should take it match by match which is more important for us. We are improving so we must handle this sort of pressure.” he said.
Mortaza said there was no animosity between their paceman Rubel Hussain and Virat Kohli. The two players have had a bitter past since their Under-19 days. “We battle on the field but it is not literally a battle. I don’t think anyone will think about what happened in a match three-four months ago.
“But people will remember such things but as cricketers, we shouldn’t be thinking about such things. We will definitely play to win but I will hope people don’t think differently about it,” said Mashrafe.