Mushfiqur Rahim calls for revenge against Afghanistan

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim with the World T20 trophy in Dhaka

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim has said that his side is waiting to take revenge against Afghanistan in the World Cup T20 qualifiers set to begin on March 16, 2014, after being beaten by them in the recently concluded Asia Cup tournament.

“They [Afghanistan] will also be under pressure,” Mushfiqur said. “They would like to do something in such a big event. But we want to take revenge after being beaten in the Asia Cup. Our first target is to cross the first round, but more importantly, we are concentrating on the first game against Afghanistan. We have two matches after that against Nepal and Hong Kong.”

“We have found out more information about them [Afghanistan] lately. We have played against them, which helped in that regard. They might know enough about us but Shakib [Al Hasan], Mashrafe [Mortaza] and Tamim [Iqbal] didn’t play the Asia Cup match against them. They must have seen these players on TV, but it is a different ball-game when they play against them.”

Bangladesh are placed in the same group as Afghanistan, with Nepal and Hong Kong being the other two teams. Only one team from each group can qualify for the main event. Ireland, Zimbabwe, Netherlands and United Arab Emirates make up the other group.

After a finger injury in the Test series against Sri Lanka, Mushfiqur hasn’t been keeping wickets; but he said he hopes to recover soon. The wicketkeeper-batsman added: “I had another X-ray. I will start keeping from tomorrow, and the pain has been less. I hope to keep wickets from March 16. I believe that we will find everyone fully fit which will make us stronger. I think it is important to do well on the particular day and overcome the pressure.”

Despite being whitewashed by Sri Lanka in the ODI series and not managing to win a single match in the Asia Cup, Rahim, expecting his players to step up to the big occasion, remained confident about his side’s chances in the World Cup T20.

He said: “We beat West Indies in the 2007 tournament but haven’t quite played consistently. We don’t play too many T20s like the other international teams which hinders our consistent performance. Recently we have played some domestic T20 competitions, where our players have done well.”

“We are more focused on working hard, and showing our performance. We are hungrier now. We want to show that Bangladesh can take up a big challenge in this World T20. We need to be calm under pressure, and there are guys in the dressing-room who play better in pressure situations. I hope they do that in the coming days,” Rahim signed off.