Sports Reporter :
Bangladesh will take in Zimbabwe in the first Twenty20 International (T20I) match at Harare Sports Club Ground in Zimbabwe today. The match will start at 5.00pm (Bangladesh Standard Time). Private satellite sports channel T Sports will telecast the match live. Bangladesh will face Zimbabwe in the second T20I on July 30 at the same venue and third T20I on August 2 at the same venue. All the matches will begin at 5.00pm.
Before today’s match, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe faced each other in 16 Twenty20 International (T20I) matches. Of them, Bangladesh registered 11 victories, while Zimbabwe won five matches.
Team Director of Bangladesh Cricket team Khaled Mahmud Sujon said, ” Some specialists of cricket suggested us to do experiment in T20 format. But we are not interested to do any experiment in this format.”
He said, ” We have not yet proved our ability in this format. We just give rest Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim. We shall not rule out Shakib, Riyad or Mushfiq. We want to test some new cricketers. Our players are going to play such kind of team, which are not tough opponents. We want to get idea about our youngsters. We knew the ability of our senior players.”
Zimbabwe are confident after becoming the champions of the qualifiers of World Cup. They did not get service from Blessing Muzarabani and Tenadai Chatara due to injury. Muzarabani and Chatara played the key role to qualify for the World Cup. Besides, wickets and conditions of Zimbabwe are favourable for the pacers.
Newly appointed Captain of Bangladesh T20I Cricket team Nurul Hasan Sohan said, ” We have to perform our best, if we want to beat Zimbabwe. The T20I series is very challenging for us. We want to win the matches, that we can. If we win all the matches it will be very much positive for us. We want to go forward match by match. We want to make a good start in the series.”
