Day of rest primes Tigers for Lankan showdown
The day after a match, Bangladesh players usually avoid practice sessions. Considering the UAE heat and the packed tournament schedule, not heading off to the field on the only gap day between matches against Hong Kong and Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi made even more sense.
But this time, the Tigers had requested a complete day off on Friday -- no training, no media duties -- which posed a problem as a pre-match press conference is mandatory in Asia Cup.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. To keep all parties happy, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) came up with a unique solution: arranging the press conference at nearly midnight after the Hong Kong game on Thursday.
Pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib, who attended, admitted the ACC's idea worked in their favour, "This decision was taken so that we could get the whole Friday off. It's definitely a good thing, it's very hot here. This way we can recover without any other worries."
Friday truly turned out to be a day of complete rest for the Tigers as other than the Muslim members of the team offering Friday prayers at Abu Dhabi's famous Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque at noon, there were no activities.
The team management instructed players to spend the day stress-free, not think about cricket, and go into the Sri Lanka game refreshed and recharged.
Though Bangladesh started their campaign with an expected win over Hong Kong, their real challenge in the group-stage begins on Saturday with the Sri Lanka game, which would be followed by their final Group B match against Afghanistan on Tuesday.
A victory against the Lankans will boost their Super Four qualification chances whereas a defeat would drag them into tricky scenarios ahead of the Afghanistan clash.
Before taking the field, Bangladesh believe they have a psychological edge over the Lankans, having won their first ever T20I series in Sri Lanka back in July.
"We beat Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, that gives us confident. When you've beaten a team, it always puts you ahead mentally," Tanzim said.
Bangladesh also beat Sri Lanka in the last ICC T20 World Cup and again in the 2023 ICC World Cup. But in the Asia Cup, the story is different as in both the latest ODI and T20 editions, the Tigers lost to Sri Lanka.
In Asia Cup T20s, the two teams are level with one win each while in the UAE, Bangladesh are yet to beat the islanders in a T20I, having lost to them in the previous two encounters.
Tanzim, however, preferred to only think about the recent sweet memories, "We'll go in with extra confidence against Sri Lanka. We won against them in the World Cup, we won the last series too. We've played them so many times that we know every player well. We'll be fully prepared."
Since the Nidahas Trophy in 2018, the Bangladesh–Sri Lanka rivalry has kicked up a few notches, and Tanzim admitted that the heat of the rivalry will inevitably be felt in Saturday's game as well, "Rivalry will always be there. But for me, rivalry isn't the main thing. Winning is very important."
Bangladesh are unlikely to make changes from the XI that beat Hong Kong. Tawhid Hridoy, who has been struggling with poor form, couldn't quite spread his wings against Hong Kong either, making an unbeaten 35 off 36. A big test awaits him against Sri Lanka.
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