On the eve of departing for South Africa to take part in the ICC Under-19 World Cup, the captain of the Bangladesh squad chosen for the tournament sounded a refreshing note of confidence and professionalism.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Akbar Ali, the BKSP product who captains the team, eyed to go all the way in the upcoming which is set to take place in South Africa from January 17 to February 9.
Bangladesh left for South Africa on Friday. In a media interaction before that on Thursday, Akbar said they have the ability to go all the way in the World Cup.
“We have played a good brand of cricket in the recent past which created high expectations among the fans. But we are not looking too far ahead of ourselves at this moment. Our main goal will be to qualify for the knock-out stage. After that, we will take one match at a time,” Akbar told the media on Thursday at the press conference area in the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
“We have a very good practice camp in Bogra for a period of three weeks which will help us enormously in South Africa because the condition of Bogra is pace-bowling friendly and might face the same sort of condition in South Africa. We are fully satisfied with the practice we have before flying for the World Cup,” the wicketkeeper-batsman added.
A total of 16 teams will fight for the title, divided into four groups. India, Japan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka are placed in Group A while Australia, England, Nigeria and West Indies are in Group B. Bangladesh, Pakistan, Scotland and Zimbabwe are in Group C while Afghanistan, Canada, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates are in Group D.
Bangladesh will face Zimbabwe in their first game at JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom in South Africa on January 18 before taking on Scotland and Pakistan on January 21 and 24.
Before the main event, Bangladesh are scheduled to play two practice matches against Afghanistan and Potchefstroom Under 19 team. They have two warm-up games as well which will take place on January 13 and 15 against Australia and New Zealand respectively.
Top two teams of each group will qualify to Super League quarter-finals while the bottom two teams will have to play in Plate quarter-finals. The winners of Super League quarter-finals will advance to the semifinals while the winners of the Plate quarter-finals will qualify for the Plate semifinals.
Under-19 team head coach Naveed Nawaz also said that his team has the ability to go all the way in the world cup if they manage to apply themselves properly in the field. He said: “We would like to break our plan into small components so that it will be easy for all of us. Our initial target in the world cup is to qualify for the knock-out stage. After that, we will think about the next phase of the event.”
In 2019, Bangladesh toured New Zealand and England, and they did well also. According to Naveed, the recent international tours helped the boys to get more experienced. He believes, the batting department will be the key for the Junior Tigers to do something notable in the World Cup.
