‘Told Mashrafe to open the innings’
Bangladesh openers had been struggling since the start of the Asia Cup and the team was losing too many wickets early on with early disasters in every game before Liton Das and Mehedi Miraz had starred in a 121-run opening stand in the final against India. Captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza gambled and sent in Miraz to open with Liton. According to BCB president Nazmul Hassan, he was left frustrated by the team's opening slot situation and had actually told captain Mashrafe in a meeting to go and open the innings with Liton in the final.
"As far as Miraz is concerned in the opening slot, it was an odd decision and it also surprised me. Opening slot had become a huge problem. Nothing was working as we were losing two to three wickets early. I told Mashrafe in the meeting that 'you open the innings with Liton'.
Bangladesh had lost opener Tamim Iqbal in their first match of the Asia Cup against Sri Lanka and opener Nazmul Hossain did not perform and had little time to settle down in such a major tournament. The final of the tournament presented a big problem as Tigers were unsure how to not give India the momentum by losing wickets early. Miraz and Liton's opening partnership was the Tigers' highest opening partnership in the series.
"Mashrafe then told Miraz and he agreed to open. He played really well. He is a good batsman and a player and we have to perhaps see him as more than just a bowler," the president said.
He opined that Bangladesh were still looking at options for Tamim Iqbal's opening partner.
"There are risks to experimenting and we may lose but we need to do those things to keep the future in track. We need a partner for Tamim and we still don't know who is the best option," he said.
He however also reiterated that the upcoming bilateral series against Zimbabwe and West Indies presented room for experiments.
"Naturally we need two players to replace Tamim and Shakib. Whether those players will come from the current crop of players or from the pipeline remains to be seen. Personally, I think this is the time for experiments, the Zimbabwe and West Indies series since they are bilateral series. We don't want to experiment in the World Cup or the Asia Cup."
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