'They will be different in 2019'
Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza said upon his return from England yesterday that the experience his young guns gained from the ICC Champions Trophy would be immense for the 2019 World Cup.
The seniors did a decent job during the tournament, but younger players like Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman and Mustafizur Rahman failed to live up to expectations. Mashrafe however believed that it was not easy for any young player to perform on such a big stage.
"It's not easy for young players to perform on such a big stage, but I must say that they need to improve their performance. Senior players' performance is necessary, but young players must also step up. Unfortunately that did not happen," said Mashrafe while talking to reporters at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport yesterday.
"But these young players may play with big responsibility after two years when they will play the World Cup in England. It is now time for them to improve their performance and in two years they will be more experienced. So, I am confident that they will do much better in the 2019 World Cup," he continued.
The Tigers skipper also said that they have to give emphasis on attaining some skills and abilities like how to bowl on flat tracks to take their performance another step forward.
"It's a big thing that we played the semifinal and you should consider our group when you judge our performance in the tournament. It's not an easy task and that's why playing the semifinal was a big achievement for Bangladesh cricket. Yes, we had the chance to make it much better but we failed to capitalise on that. It's frustrating that we failed to capitalise on the opportunity in the semifinal but from here our cricket must go forward," said Mashrafe.
"As a good team we should have played much better, something which we maybe couldn't do. But next time, we have to play with more maturity. We made some small mistakes, so now is the time to work on those aspects and at the same time do better in the upcoming series mentally, physically and obviously skill wise," he continued.
The most successful Bangladesh captain said that the experienced they gained from the ICC Champions Trophy would help the side to perform better in big events in the future. "It is now important to cash in on this experience and I am hopeful we can do it."
The cricketers will now enjoy a two-week break before returning to business to prepare themselves for the two-match Test series against Australia at home in August this year, but Mashrafe has a long break ahead as the next ODI assignment is in September when Bangladesh will tour South Africa.
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