In a bid to keep the winning spree in the ongoing Tri-nation T20 series, Bangladesh will take on Afghanistan in their second match at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium today. The match begins at 6.30 PM. BTV and GTV will telecast the match live from the arena.
The match will be a revenge mission in a sense for Bangladesh, following their humiliating 224-run defeat to Afghanistan in the one-off Test match in the last week.
But, in T20 cricket, Afghanistan have the edge over Bangladesh as they won three matches against the Tigers out of four.
On most of the occasion in T20 cricket, Bangladesh were tormented severely by Afghan spinners, specially at the hand of Rashid Khan who ruined their hopes in one-off Test with a match haul of 11-104.
When Bangladesh’s focus on how to neutralize the Afghan spinners threat, white-ball batting consultant Neil McKenzie said Afghan pacers also should get the priority.
“We know the Afghanistan bowlers, their spinners in particularly. I think you can’t leave some of their seamers and their spinners got all the recognition,” McKenzie said.
“But there are very good seamers as well. We know what they are about and they find their own way in international cricket. They have got some world class bowlers, particularly the spinners. So we have prepared accordingly.”
McKenzie said, they should stay positive and play their natural game whatever happens around them.
“The plan was just stick to game plans. We know what they would do. We knew what the challenges were and just play your game. The biggest thing is when you start doubting yourself, you don’t play your natural game. We can’t have one of our batsmen thinking this is my last chance or I don’t want to do this. We have to go out there and play positive cricket and play for Bangladesh.”
Mckenzie also heaped shower of praise on youngster Afif Hossain who smashed a brilliant 26 ball-52 against Zimbabwe to help Bangladesh win the game from jittery 60-6.
He backed Afif to come with good once again as Afghanistan test awaits Bangladesh.
“He (Afif) just came out there and took the game away from them. I really liked his approach. Obviously he got a contract with CPL which shows you that someone sees something really positive in him. It was just exciting to see him. I just have seen him for a couple of days and the guys are talking about him for around for couple of months and I am very happy that he has come back and showed what he is about. It’s nice to have him back and let’s just hope for the consistency. He definitely has a great impact and what I liked about him he came off the field disappointing yesterday. He was disappointed as he could not finish the game. He hit a great shot and was unlucky. It shows me there is something special about him and he plays some brave, smart cricket.”
