Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza
believes playing a fearless brand of one-day cricket has brought about a “significant
change” in his team’s fortunes.
Over the last two years Bangladesh lost
home ODI series to Sri Lanka and India and were also blanked 3-0 in West Indies,
but an upswing in performances has seen them win 10 ODIs at home in a row.
Bangladesh blanked Zimbabwe 5-0 in a
five-ODI series before reaching the quarter-finals of the World Cup in
Australia and New Zealand for the first time, and proved that was no fluke by
thumping Pakistan 3-0 in a ODI series at home.
They followed that up with their first
ODI series win over two-time world champions India on Sunday with a game to
spare.
“I think the boys are playing fearless
cricket,” Mortaza told reporters. “This is the significant change.
“The boys are not scared to play shots.
They are not scared to put the slips on so I think that sort of cricket has
changed.
“Cricket is all about mind games. I
think we are all playing good cricket at the moment, especially with our head
in the right place. I have always wanted to play attacking cricket.”
The Bangladesh batsmen went hard at
India’s bowling in both matches while left-arm paceman Mustafizur Rahman ran
through the vaunted Indian batting, picking up five wickets on debut and then
six on Sunday.
Both victories were comfortably achieved
and the margin of the wins surprised even Mortaza.
“This is one of the biggest
achievements. Actually I think the boys are really confident. Maybe we didn’t
expect (to win) that way,” the medium paceman said.
“But we always thought that we are going
to play to win and fight till the last ball. Obviously I know that if we play
our best cricket, it will be competitive. But we can win as well.”
While Bangladesh have surprised top teams
in the past, they have suffered from a lack of consistency and Mortaza said he
hoped his team can continue delivering results.
“Our biggest problem was the
consistency,” he said. “In cricket, momentum is very important so hopefully the
boys will keep it up.” (Source: Reuters)
