'We believe nothing is impossible'
The Bangladesh national women's team will play their first ICC World Twenty20 game today at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore today when they take on tournament favourites India.
Bangladesh have played India a number of times before and they went down in each of those games quite comprehensively. While one would have to be extremely optimistic to hope for a win today, the fact remains that the Tigresses have improved quite a bit in the last year.
They gave Sri Lanka a run for their money in the first warm-up game and also crushed Ireland in their second. Having been placed in a group that includes the three top-ranked sides of the world -- England, India and West Indies -- the women in green will try their best to make an impression in the world event.
Speaking on the eve of the game, Bangladesh skipper Jahanara Alam sounded confident. “Our preparation has been good and we are very confident. As a team we believe nothing is impossible. We know India is one of the strongest teams in the competition and we just want to play good cricket; the result will take care of itself,” she said.
The key factor for Bangladesh is the number of all-rounders they have in the side. They have got seven players in the team who can both bat and bowl. For the Tigresses to put up any fight, they will first need their batters, who have traditionally struggled, to put up a good score on board.
Anything above 120 and Jahanara and Co will reckon they have a shot, considering that they have got a balanced bowling attack that has both pacers and spinners.
India, meanwhile, have been clinical. Since their historic series win in Australia earlier this year, Mithali Raj's team have found a winning combination, and that momentum has brought it into the World T20 as one of the favourites.
India will be the favourite going into the opening match of the championship and if their form of late, where it beat Australia Women (2-1) and Sri Lanka (3-0), is anything to go by, there might be a rather one-sided contest.
But Raj, the Indian captain, stressed that there will not be any over-confidence. “We haven't played Bangladesh and Pakistan for two years now, since the last World T20 in Bangladesh, and two years is a long gap in international cricket,” she said. “Having said that, our preparation has been good, so we will work to our strengths.”
Comments