In contrast to the thoughts of the head coach Chandika Hathurusingha, the in-form top-order batter for Bangladesh, Najmul Hossain Shanto, said that the players still have the same desire for the World Cup as they had in the past.
After the Tigers were knocked out of the Asia Cup, Hathurusingha gave an interview to two Bangla newspapers and recommended that “anyone still dreaming of the World Cup needs to wake up.” This came after the Tigers were ousted from the Asia Cup. After the Tigers’ defeat, he made this declaration to the media.
In spite of this, Shanto said earlier today that the dream is still occurring.
“That’s not the case at all. “We all are still dreaming of the same thing as before,” said Shanto, who is expected to lead Bangladesh for the very first time in the forthcoming third and final One-Day International (ODI) match against New Zealand in Mirpur. The match will take place on September 29.
Because the normal captain Shakib Al Hasan and the vice captain Liton Das were unavailable to participate in the last one-day international against New Zealand, Shanto was given the opportunity to lead the squad in their absence.
When questioned about his thoughts on the statements that the head coach had made in relation to the World Cup, Shanto reacted as follows: “Us players, we targetted to finish among the top four in the ODI Super League.” And when the final tally was tallied, we finished in third place overall. Since then, every one of us has entertained the hope that Bangladesh would do something at the World Cup that they have never done before, and that we will play well enough to make it a reality. Because we are confident in our ability to accomplish that goal, we have made it one of our top priorities to make it a reality.
The words that Hathurusingha made stunned even the seasoned activist Tamim Iqbal, who was listening to them. The left-handed opener also gave the impression that they had high expectations of their performance in the next big competition.
After losing the second one-day international against New Zealand by 86 runs, Bangladesh will be eager to get back on track and avoid losing their first ever bilateral series to New Zealand at home since 2008. Rain prevented the beginning of the first one-day international match that was scheduled.