Tamim wants gutsy performance from players

Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal urged his players to come up with courageous performance as they are targeting to change their abysmal record in South Africa. The Tigers will play their first of three-match ODI series against South Africa Friday at Centurion.

The visitors have gone winless in 19 matches across formats (six Tests, nine ODIs and four T20Is) in South Africa. Only time they could avoid a defeat in one ODI that was washed out in late 2008 in East London.

While it looked, it would be extremely tough to turn the fortune, Bangladesh drew confidence from the first ever Test win in New Zealand. The Tigers won the Mount Maungunai Test after going winless for 33 matches in New Zealand.

Even though Bangladesh overall lost 17 matches to South Africa and won just 4 in 22 matches, they beat the Proteas in the last encounter in 2019 World Cup in England.

"We have played well against them in the recent World Cup. So I don't see any reason not to play well here either," Tamim Iqbal, the ODI captain of the Bangladesh said during a virtual press conference today.

"No matter what I say, how we start tomorrow is important. We will see later how we proceed. Here we are focused on our process. South Africa has always been a difficult journey for us. Now let us change things around. To do that we have to play with courage because we have to face enormous challenges. So courage is the thing which is very important."

While the weather and the pacy wicket of South Africa has always been tougher to deal with for the visiting team, specially team from the subcontinent, the size and the shape of the ground is another thing which offer extreme challenge.

Knowing that well, Tamim said they have to go with positive mindset despite the adversities.

"We don't have much experience playing ODI cricket here. But I can say that there will be a challenge for us. It's a field... if you look at the statistics, it's a very high scoring ground with a lot of runs. The shape of the field and the outfield are big factors. But no matter how many statistics we see, we have to play good cricket on the field. No doubt they will attack us. We have to take care of that thing well," Tamim remarked.

Mental preparation is more important than any other thing, specially when the team plays in an alien condition, according to Tamim.

"The bottom line is that the more mentally prepared you are, the better you can fight. This is the main thing. You get ready to come here seven days ago after playing on one type of wicket all year round. Surely we should consider ourselves lucky. That being said, the main thing is to prepare yourself mentally," he opined.

Shakib Al Hasan has joined the side at the eleventh hour but the BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon told that the allrounder could take rest from any ODI or Test match if he feels fatigues. Tamim however said he didn't get any message about Shakib's rest from any matches as of now.

"I don't have any message where I was told he (Shakib) would have to rest for a couple of matches or something. I know he's close with our team and available for the whole series. I talked to him about normal cricket. Tomorrow's match is about to be played. He wants us all to do well together. Besides, I don't have any other information," Tamim said.