Asia Cup 2018: Mashrafe Mortaza Seeks Team Effort ahead of the Opener
Sep 15, 2018 at 12:30 PM
Bangladesh Cricket team skipper Mashrafe Mortaza has sought team effort ahead of their first game against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup 2018.
Meanwhile, the six-team tournament at the United Arab Emirates(UAE) will commence from September 15. Bangladesh are going into the competition on the back of some good performances beating Windies. However, they have a lot of injury problems with three crucial players running against time to be fit.
Speaking ahead of the game, Mashrafe Mortaza noted that he has faith in young cricketers. He also emphasized on team efforts to win this kind of crucial encounters.
“Of course, I believe in the juniors, and I believe that given enough opportunities they will do well. We haven’t played international cricket for a while after the West Indies tour, but there are players who did well in practice matches and we have faith in them,” said Mashrafe.
“I think the junior cricketers too have to step up and perform. I would also like to say that the matches we have won, we won playing as a team. So that is very important for us,” he added.
Meanwhile, things took an ugly turn when both the teams clashed in the Nidahas Trophy earlier this year. So much so, T20I skipper Shakib Al Hasan threatened to pull out his players at one point.
However, Bangladesh held their nerves to win the close encounter to set up a date with India in the finals. But Mashrafe Mortaza doesn’t want to stick on to the past and move on from it.
“You cannot bring an event from the past on the field. Honestly, those incidents do not come to mind while you are playing. The main focus is to win by playing a good game of cricket. It is not the time for us to think of any other facts, and I do not think there is the importance of this on the field,” he signed off.
Bangladesh are tied with Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in the six-nation Asia Cup 2018.