- Sunday, March 09, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
It is a crucial game for both teams in the ongoing T20 World Cup in Australia but it seems one team is less confident about a win.
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan said on Tuesday (1) that his team was not playing in the marquee tournament to win it while their opponents for Wednesday’s (2) game at the Adelaide Oval were.
The ace all-rounder also said that if the ‘Tigers’ — as Bangladesh cricketers are known — managed to beat India, it would be an upset.
Both Bangladesh and India have two wins from three games so far and are on same points but India are ranked better owing to a superior net run rate. Whoever win the match will take a big stride towards making the last four from Group 2.
“Every match is important for us and we want to play with the same approach. We don’t want to focus on any single opposition. We just want to stick to our plans. We are not worried about the strike rates of our players in this World Cup. We are just focused on giving a complete team performance in all the departments of the game,” Al Hasan told reporters in a press conference.
“We want to play well in our remaining two games. If we are able to win against India or Pakistan, it would be an upset. Both the teams are better than us on paper, if we play well and if it is our day, there is no reason why we cannot win. We have seen teams like Ireland and Zimbabwe beating England and Pakistan. If we are able to do the same, I’ll be happy,” he added.
Talking about the upcoming clash, he said, “I think it will be a full house because India gets good support wherever they play. I think it will be a good game. India are the favourites heading into the match. They have come here to win the World Cup, we are not here to win the World Cup. You can understand the situation, if we win against India, it will be an upset and we will try our best to upset India.”
Bangladdesh have so far beaten the Netherlands and Zimbabwe in close games while India have picked wins over arch-rivals Pakistan and the Netherlands.
India and Bangladesh have played 11 times in the T20 format so far with the former winning 10 and the latter just one.
