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‘I’m not a magician’


Published : 08 Mar 2023 09:03 PM

Bangladesh cricket team head coach Chandika Hathurusingha claimed he was not a magician who could predict outcomes.

In the upcoming three-match T20I series, which begins on Thursday, Hathurusingha was questioned about Bangladesh’s chances of winning any of the games.

“It’s all them, the players,” Hathurusingha replied. “I’m not a magician or someone who can forecast the future. We can try (to win matches),” he added.

The players should follow their BPL strategy and apply it to this series against the world champions, according to Hathurusingha.

“I’m very open to seeing what we can do (in the series). And I expect the players to do the same thing that they have done to get selected. So, go and show them at the international level against the world champions for them to understand where they are at and for us to understand whether we are better than them in our condition or they are better than us.  Good opportunity for us to see where our skill set is in T20Is,” he further said.

This series is not only the beginning of Hathurusingha’s new journey, but also the beginning of building a T20 team for next year’s World Cup.

The coach, however, saw the team only in one practice session. Bangladesh team was rested on Tuesday after winning the last match of the ODI series. The cricketers started with fielding and batting and bowling in practice on the day before the match on Wednesday.

Hathurusinghe did not want to comment on the team after seeing the T20 cricketers on the first day.

“Saw the T20 team only today. This is just the beginning of the journey to the 2024 T20 World Cup. There will be many things in between. Now I have observed what we have, where we need to improve and what plan we can play according to our strengths,” the Lankan said.

The retired Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim are not in the T20 team, while Mahmudullah lost his place before the last World Cup. Bangladesh will play with a relatively young team under the leadership of Shakib Al Hasan.

The question came, how is the atmosphere and atmosphere of the team in the absence of senior cricketers? “The team spirit is very good. Senior or junior doesn’t matter.”

The Tigers’ coach said Bangladesh will be playing on a similar track as the third ODI was played just a couple of days ago.

‘What you saw two days ago, we can’t change much. So we are playing on a similar track as the last ODI,” he said.

“We all like runs on the board. That’s the entertainment. We need to score runs, that’s why people come to watch cricket. If we don’t score runs, the bowlers do well, that’s another way. People would like to watch runs and matches going to the last overs. That’s what we want to do.”