Former Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza believes that the national cricket team has the ability to beat at least one of the two big teams—South Africa and Sri Lanka—in their Group D fixture to move to the next round.
Apart from South Africa and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh will get Nepal and the Netherlands in their group. Since two teams will move to the Super 8, Bangladesh need three wins to be in a safe position.
"We have the ability to beat South Africa and Sri Lanka and we did in the past. So, I think we should win against South Africa and Sri Lanka. At least we should beat one of them,” Mashrafe said during a press conference on the Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Kabaddi tournament at the Bangladesh Olympic Association auditorium on Monday.
While Bangladesh won five out of 16 T20 Internationals against Sri Lanka, they have never beaten South Africa in this format despite playing eight matches against them.
"But we had won an away series against South Africa, even though that was an ODI series. So when we did it in the ODI, that too on their own soil, why it should be tough to beat them in T20s? I feel that they will at least win against either South Africa or Sri Lanka,” he added.
Mashrafe, the most successful captain in the country’s history, hopes that the Tigers won’t taste an upset against associate teams like Nepal and the Netherlands.
“I have an experience that the people remain so much concerned when we play against associate nations. But if you fear about losing against them, it’s not good totally. I feel that we must beat one of South Africa and Sri Lanka and then beat two associate nations. If we want to move to the next round, we have to materialize it.”
Mashrafe also spoke about how the Olympics dwarfs the cricket World Cup in terms of global relevance and how he hopes to see athletes from Bangladesh win medals at the biggest sporting extravaganza in the world.
“The cricket World Cup is not the biggest tournament in the world. The Olympics is the biggest sporting competition and if someone from Bangladesh wins gold in the Olympics, it will be the biggest achievement for the country. I want Bangladesh to progress in all sports because we all play for the green and red flag,” Mashrafe said.
