'Rabada isn't unplayable'

The Tigers have had a terrific 2015. Right from the World Cup to the ODI series against India, everything seemed to click and come their way.

However, when they head to the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium today, they will be facing a different challenge. For the first time this year, the hosts will be feeling the heat.

Their lacklustre form preceding the World Cup meant that not many had expected them to do well. In fact, many reckoned that qualifying to the quarterfinals was a bonus. That was a performance that no doubt boosted Bangladesh cricket team's confidence levels throughout the year and led them to two emphatic series victories.

This time around though, the challenge will be to overturn the momentum. The batsmen aren't doing well and skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza doesn't seem to have many answers.

Bangladesh have traditionally been a team that thrives on momentum. However, a few defeats here and there tend to peg them back again. Mashrafe and company will hope that they can change this notion.

And for that, they will need their batters to fire -- a fact that Nasir Hossain emphasised on during the pre-match press conference at Mirpur yesterday.

"The biggest thing is that our batsmen haven't been able to click. If we can score runs then I don't think there will be any problem. I think we had a bad day on the field in the last ODI. But rest assured nothing has changed. We are all confident," said Nasir.

"The series against India and Pakistan were different. The batsmen could just go and start hitting from ball one on those wickets. Here, you have to stay on the wicket for a while. We are trying to learn to spend more time on the wicket," he added.

The team's target, according to Nasir, will be to play 50 overs on a track that is expected to behave like the first ODI.

20-year-old Kagiso Rabada ripped through Bangladesh's batting in the first ODI. The youngster recorded the best-ever bowling figures by a player on debut and led the visitors to a thumping 8-wicket win.

Nasir though wasn't too taken aback by Rabada's performance.

"If you see Rabada's wickets there were a few soft dismissals such as Litton [Das] and Soumya [Sarkar]. He got one or two wickets with good deliveries. I don't think he is a kind of bowler whom we can't handle," said Nasir.

"We have the ability to beat South Africa and I think we just haven't been able to click. If our batsmen can click, we can beat them. If we can do everything according to plan then you will see that the entire scenario has changed," he added.