No shying away from new-found approach

Bangladesh T20I captain Shakib Al Hasan said that there would be no change in the approach from the hosts despite losing the dead rubber third T20I against Ireland by seven wickets.

Bangladesh put up 200-plus scores in the first two T20Is thanks to their aggressive approach, but yesterday the openers did not get the team off to a flying start. After wickets had tumbled, batters did not attempt to slow down. In the end, Shamim Hossain had to hold down one end and his fifty saw the Tigers reach 124 all out.

Both Liton Das and Rony Talukdar holed out at the boundary while Shakib, also looking to take on the bowling in the Powerplay, pulled one aggressively but found the fielder at mid-wicket before Towhid Hridoy top-edged one for a dolly.

Yet, Shakib had no doubt his side had the right approach. "We didn't bat well… kept on losing wickets. But that happens. If we have to go with the same [attacking] approach, sometimes it does not come off. We did not want to change our approach. If we want to become a good team, that is how we want to play," he said yesterday.

 "We played very well. After the England series, we came back with the same intensity. We have played two good matches, and today it was Ireland's day," he said.

The Tigers put in a good showing in all three departments this series and Taskin Ahmed, the player of the series, reminded that the two 200-plus totals would not have been possible without the aggression from batters. Taskin cited that the team were ready to accept the risks of their approach.

"If we want to do something good in T20s in the future, we need this intent. The bowlers, batters and everyone will have to go forward with an aggressive mentality. On some days, this intent could lead to a collapse and we accept that. But we won't live in fear. We have to play cricket without fear of failure," Taskin declared.

Bangladesh's T20 batting performances have long been subpar and in big tournaments, when wickets stumble, the batters have often tried to reach middling scores, not at all calibrated towards the current T20I approach globally.

"We will play big sides such as England and Australia on good wickets. We would have to score runs and this intent will help. The management told us to be fearless and that it would help us become a big side in the future," he said.

The young side wants to go in a similar direction and such convergence in what they want to express will go a long way to determining Bangladesh's T20I future.