Rakibul confident to defend the title

Bangladesh under-19 cricket team captain Rakibul Hasan is confident enough to defend the title as the holders kick off their campaign as current champions against England on January 16 at St Kitt's.

The junior Tigers defeated India in the final of the 2020 edition of ICC U-19 World Cup, where Rakibul played a crucial part as a part of the team led by Akbar Ali, but this time he is wearing the captain’s armband.

Previously, Bangladesh Cricket Board arranged a tri-nation series for the young Tigers in England and a five-match youth One-Day International series in New Zealand which helped them a lot to gel as a team.

This time, the U-19 team played a series against Afghanistan at home and toured Sri Lanka where they lost all the one-day matches, they also crashed out from the semifinal of the U-19 Asia Cup after suffering a defeat against India.

Though the team led by Rakibul won the trophy of the triangular series in Kolkata where the other two teams were India U-19 A and India U-19 B.

Coming to meet the media personnel in a virtual press conference, Rakibul said that despite the loss in the Asia Cup, they are well prepared,

“Though we have lost to India in the Asia Cup, that does not hamper our preparation. We are in a good shape. Then again, if we could bat well against Sri Lanka, the story could be different. We have played two practice matches, as a batting unit we are more prepared”, he said on Wednesday.

Bangladesh played against Nepal and Kuwait in the Asia Cup and will be playing UAE and Canada in the group stage of the U-19 World Cup.

Playing against such oppositions might not expose the true shortcomings which could be lethal when the U-19 team will play a tougher opposition but Rakibul does not feel so,

“It will not be a problem. We have played against India at their own turf before coming here, played against Sri Lanka, and played against Afghanistan at home also. We are thinking about our own game, our process. We are looking forward to playing well against England in our opening game”, said the U-19 captain.

The left-arm spinner, who won the trophy last time as a team member is looking forward to lifting the trophy this time,

“Every team comes here to win the trophy. Every team has its own plans and preparations. Last time we won because our preparation and process worked. This time we lack preparation due to covid situation but that goes for every team here.  We have taken best possible preparation, if we can execute our plans and play to our potentials, we will do something good hopefully”, said Rakibul.