Bangladesh looking to increase options ahead of World Cup

The inclusion of Soumya Sarkar, Mosaddek Hossain and Mahedi Hasan in the national team for a three-day is part of the plan to increase the options ahead of the World Cup, said assistant coach Nic Pothas.

The camp, which was designed for the ODI and T20 series against Afghanistan, ended today at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

“I think again it’s been a case of giving people opportunity. We don’t want people to feel like they’re outside of the group. And it also gives us options. If somebody gets injured, we don’t want to be pulling people out of thin air from somewhere where we haven’t seen them,” Pothas said here today.

“And also giving them the best opportunity to train, to practice, to be ready, if there is an opportunity at some point. So we want to try and be as inclusive as possible. And the head coach has a very clear plan.”

It’s the head coach Chandika Hathurusingha who insisted the national selection panel to include the trio in the three-day preparation camp.

Soumya, who was dropped from the national squad after a dismal performance in the 2022 T20 World Cup, was getting the more attention because of his previous success in the global tournaments.

Soumya hasn’t played white-ball cricket for Bangladesh after the 2022 T20 World Cup but was included in the Emerging Asia Cup squad as a potential candidate in the middle-order.

“I’ve only really seen him at his best on TV a long time ago. So for us now, it’s an observation period. We want him to relax and just play because we know his best is very good. But at the moment, as I say, I’ve only seen him sort of three times in a net. That’s not enough time under no pressure to have an opinion. So I have to take my time to observe that,” Pothas said of Somuya.

“He’s (Soumya) obviously batted at the top of the order before. But again, this is a conversation with the head coach that we haven’t had yet. At the moment, it’s really at the beginning of the observation phase. So I think he’s going to get an opportunity to go away with emerging players, to play again.”

“But the most important thing for any batsman, your currency is runs. What we think you look like and what we think you can do is irrelevant. That just gets you into the system. It’s the thing that gets you into a team is runs. That’s the bottom line.” (BSS)