Sydney: Ahead of their Super 12 clash against South Africa in Men’s T20 World Cup, Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan lauded pacer Taskin Ahmed for being one of the leaders in the team, adding that he’s leading by example after his strong show in nine-run win over Netherlands.
On Monday, Ahmed picked an incredible 4/25 to give Bangladesh a narrow nine-run win over Netherlands in their first Group 2 match at the Bellerive Oval on Monday. He picked out Vikramjit Singh and Bas de Leede on the first two balls of the Netherlands chase to set the tone for Bangladesh’s first Super 12 win in T20 World Cups.
“He’s one of the leaders now after Mashrafe’s exit. He has done tremendously well the last two, three years for Bangladesh. He’s leading by example. We’ve got a very good fast bowling group in all three formats, and they are doing really well.”
“Can’t be more proud of the way they’ve improved themselves and come this far, and as a result it’s been showing now. I hope they continue this format through this World Cup, and I’m sure we’ll have a very good World Cup,” said Shakib in the pre-match press conference.
Asked how Bangladesh would be choosing their playing eleven at Sydney, a place traditionally known to assist spin, Shakib revealed, “We don’t want to be predictable. We’ll look at the opposition. We’ll look at the conditions. That’s how we have been preparing ourselves for this World Cup, because every ground is different.”
“The dimensions are different. The wind factor is different. The weather is different. We’ll obviously plan accordingly. Might not go in our way, but that’s how open we are.”
Shakib signed off on an optimistic note, saying that the 43-run stand between openers Soumya Sarkar and Najmul Hossain Shanto coming in 5.1 overs will give Bangladesh confidence to post an even bigger stand against South Africa.
“The opening stand will give us confidence. Both openers were quite positive (against Netherlands), which was more important than the runs they scored. We should play with more freedom now.
“We have played against the South African pacers recently. We know what they can do, and we have been successful in ODIs. I think we can counter their plans and have the upper hand.”
–IANS
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