Mountain to climb for injured Tigers

When Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim trudged back to the dressing room after attending the presentation ceremony on Saturday night at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium, the little man looked like the unhappiest man in the world. It was not only the comprehensive eight-wicket defeat in the first ODI that brought about the forlorn look, but also the fact that his team needs to pull of a surprise to save the series today as one of his key weapons –Tamim Iqbal — has been ruled out of the series due to a fractured right thumb.
When Bangladesh face Sri Lanka for the second of three ODIs at the same venue, Mushfiqur will face possibly his biggest challenge as captain because the team have never faced such a problem with injuries.
The events in the first match — when Tillakaratne Dilshan feasted on Bangladesh’s bowling attack — clearly justified the skipper’s concern with the inexperienced pace attack. Then Tamim’s injury put further pressure on the shoulders of the little man as the left-hander showed in the first game how important his presence is for a good start.
The biggest question ahead of the second match however remains whether pace duo Rubel Hossain and Abul Hasan can recover from the assault front up to Dilshan and Kushal Perera, who brought back the Sri Lankan brand of opening. “The way these two guys batted, the Bangladesh bowling looked ordinary. They actually demolished the bowling attack and you know any attack can fall apart when these guys bat like that — especially Dilshan,” Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews showered praise on his opening pair after winning the first game.
Rubel Hossain, more experienced than new ball partner Hasan, however was praying that his captain wins the toss to give them a chance to bowl first as, like his teammates, he said that dew played a vital role in the sordid outcome.
“We can in no way make excuses because we failed to bowl in the right areas. But the fact is that batting was so easy due to the dew factor and they are accustomed to these conditions. Our patience faltered when the good balls were also punished. An early breakthrough is really important to get the confidence. I want to see us win the toss tomorrow,” hoped the right-arm paceman who is generally used as a change bowler but is opening the bowling in this series after a spate of injuries ruled out Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Shafiul Islam and Nazmul Hossain.
He also said that experience is very important in this kind of condition. “We have no other choice but to mentally prepare ourselves so that we can bowl in the right areas. We are desperately missing an experienced bowler like Mashrafe Bhai but we have to accept the reality.”
Head coach Shane Jurgensen kept faith in his inexperienced bowlers, who in his opinion are in the midst of a learning process. The ever-smiling Australian said that the situation is in no way ideal for them with one injury after another, but he was not ready to give up the fight. “Mushi (Mushfiqur Rahim) is having a tough time but we must think about winning when we play any match, there is no other choice,” said Jurgensen. And he believes that mental strength is a vital factor in this kind of situation.
The Bangladesh coach also reminded his charges during the team meeting yesterday that the team played good cricket without key players like Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal not long ago, so they have to play good cricket with the available resources now.
Tamim said after his injury that one player’s absence creates an opportunity for another — Bangladesh will look forward to that resilience from the players as they have to overcome great odds.


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