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‘It’s also about margin, strength and awareness’
Bangladesh women’s team are set to begin their Asia Cup title defence with the eighth edition of the continental championship set to be played in Sylhet from October 1 to October 15. The Tigresses made history when they clinched their maiden title by beating a strong India in Malaysia in the previous edition in 2018. As the Nigar Sultana Joty-led side look to retain the trophy, The Daily Star’s Abdullah Al Mehdi caught up with Nazmul Abedin Fahim, who served as a mentor for the reigning Asian Champions in the last edition, as the veteran coach talked about the Tigresses chances and shared his views ahead of the tournament. The excerpts of the interview are as follows:
The Daily Star (DS): You have previously worked with this team. What’s your thought on the stability and improvement of the current squad following their T20 World Cup qualifier triumph?
Nazmul Abedin Fahim (NAF): I think there aren’t many changes in the squad from the previous edition. You can see a similar bunch of players in the vital role. In the qualifiers (T20 world cup), Ireland and Thailand are tough opponents for Bangladesh. If we won those matches with ease, I would have felt much better. I think the batting is still not up to the mark and needs to be improved. Since we have won Asia Cup in the past, so it is expected to win against these teams by a larger difference.
DS: Were there any opportunities for the new faces to shine in the qualifiers?
NAF: Of course, the entire set of players won’t change. There will be some key players who can change the scenarios of the match. But there’s always scope to try a new batter or a bowler to check them out. But I didn’t see that happening often. Most of these players are from the squad I left. Probably that’s why the results remained the same. If they had given a chance to one or two new batters, probably they could have taken the game to the next level.
DS: Joty (Nigar Sultana), Fargana (Hoque) played key roles in your tenure. They had runs with the bat in the recent qualifiers too. How do you see their progress ahead of the Asia Cup?
NAF: Of course, they are in good touch with the bat. But when you will play against tougher opponents with the likes of India, Sri Lanka who have a tighter bowling attack and more aggressive body language. They’ll face a bigger challenge, and there will be pressure over us as we are defending the title. But I think the girls should play their usual game instead of taking the pressure. I’m not sure about whether they can win the tournament or not, but they can perform well if they play their own game.
DS: What should be our expectation from this Asia Cup?
NAF: As the defending champion, our efforts should be on retaining the title. However, if some new players come up in the tournament, we can move forward from here and look into the future.
DS: What would be your suggestion for the current quad?
NAF: Well, the opening needs to improve. We are not seeing consistent pairs at the start. We have always been good against spin, but the batters are struggling against fast bowlers sometimes. So there’s a scope of improvement over there. We have some good all-rounders, but we need to improve the level of our gameplay. As we haven’t played many international T20 cricket in the past, this still remained an issue. The management should play a role to bring out the best from these players. It’s not always about winning, but sometimes, it’s the margin, the strength and awareness. These are very important issues to work on as well.