Bangladesh captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz has said that he is not taking New Zealand’s under-strength side lightly. His counterpart Tom Latham believes that his less-experienced players should stick to their domestic formula to find success at this level.
Mehidy and Latham are at critical points in their respective ODI careers. Latham has the opportunity to regain a place in the middle order after being dropped recently; Mehidy has led Bangladesh in two successive ODI series wins but the jury is still out on his captaincy.
“We cannot see New Zealand as a weak side,” Mehidy said on the eve of the series opener. “We will try our hardest to get the result in our favour. For professional cricketers, every game is important; the chance to earn ranking points also gives it a little more importance. Winning the series against New Zealand would be a big achievement for us. I think the Bangladesh team is in good shape. The last two series wins also showed that we are bonding well as a team.”
Latham said he will ask many of his players to focus on bringing their domestic plans to this three-match series. He said it was not exactly a rookie side, as the players have appeared for New Zealand a few times, at the very least.
“I think the goal for us is for everyone to bring their own skill. We have a blueprint and a style that we like to play with, but we want guys to come in and play the way that they’ve played for their domestic sides back home in New Zealand. We know if they do that, then they’ll give themselves the best opportunity.
“Everyone across the whole squad has played for New Zealand at some point, so they know what international cricket is about, even if they haven’t played as many games as some of our other guys. We want them to come in, back themselves, and play the way they want to play,” he said.
Latham said New Zealand were aware of how Bangladesh have both pace and spin as strengths in their bowling attack. He said he respects the pace bowling trio that played a match-winning role in the series against Pakistan last month, but remains wary of what spin can do in the conditions.
“[Bangladesh’s seam attack] has quite a bit of experience, especially in these conditions when you look at Taskin [Ahmed], Mustafizur [Rahman], and obviously [Nahid] Rana, who’s made a name for himself over the last couple of seasons. We will however be prepared for everything. Looking at the surface, it looks like a good surface, but we know spin plays a part in these conditions as well. Bangladesh are playing great cricket at the moment, so we’re going to be challenged.”
Mehidy said that their batting needs to react well to any type of wicket. “We are hopeful of playing this series on good pitches, like we did against Pakistan. You also have to bear in mind that both Pakistan and us were bowled out cheaply at least once in that series. I think it is more important how the players manage themselves on any type of wicket,” he said.
