Eye on the World Cup

[aosaif]

I suppose the real reason I'm back on BC is because my desh is going to the world cup soon, and we better impress or there's gonna be some ***-kicking awaiting the players when they get back on bd soil. More importantly, the world is watching!

This Zimbabwe series shows us that we're getting better. However, it's important to gaurd against inflated egos about our abilities because.....let's face it.....it's the Zimbos - a side much in need of experience. It's great to see Nafees and Mehrab finding some rhythm with the bat and solidifying their unencryptionable communication. JO deserves a mention here.....thanks for everything.....you shall be remembered. It is important to realize that Nafees and Mehrab are going to find the going much tougher against tough teams. If you're not worried about Ashraful's and Aftab's inconsistencies, poor shot selection and downright sub-standard batting.....be prepared for a world cup of miseries. Our success will largely depend on them, even if most of our success against the Zimbos is derived from Nafees, some great bowling, and terrible Zimbo batting. I can tell you now, Bashar will fail in the world cup. Do not harbour hopes for a comback to the good ol' days when he belted and bashed his way into the top 10 Test batsmen in the world. Bashar may contribute his vital 30s in important matches, and maybe that's enough reason to keep him (other than the main reason - a capable captain). Sakib has surprised me, he's showing great maturity and seems extremely capable given his inexperience.

Ashraful and Aftab need to come back in a big way in the last two ODIs of this series. I don't see that happening, but if it's going to happen, it'll happen against the Zimbos. On current form we are on track for a mega-humiliating world cup, simply because Aftab and Ashraful are not firing.

The Zimbabwe series proves only one thing: that ignorance is bliss...

[uss01]

Yeah man. Both Aftab and Ash have been underporforming seriously. Aftab is also going through the Ash syndrome: always going for big shots, like the last match he got out sweeping when there was no need to do so. What an idiot. If these 2 batsmen know that they don't always have to go for boundaries, I think BD can have a good chance against even big teams. They need to learn how to pick the singles and two's consistently. I know Ash has done that in the past, but Aftab seems like he doesn't know how to do that, always goes for boundaries and sixes.

[Najeeb_Islam]

agree on the part there is no need to be ultra thick headed playing careless shots like high school cricketers. they are playing at professional level with a lack of common sense. utterly dissapointing and pathetic - what good is ash's skills if he can't put them to use. aftab - well i hope he comes to his senses.

but if you asked me our current team is the best team we ever had. i think so. either ash and aftab has to produce stability or by next few years i hope we get a new stable batsmen from young cricketers whose maturity is complemented with skill.

on the other hand india who is in our group for world cup ? is getting thrashed by south africa - this will shatter their confidence and indians are shaky and performs poorly in foreign soil outside the sub-continent. so that favors bd.i guess same for us too but i think it favors us more than indians.

bermuda india - other is sri lanka ? (haa i wish it were someone else) - let's be optimistic and see where it goes.

[oracle]

I think we are in a sort of competitive group. Look at it this way, it's way better than having to meet New Zealand or South Africa or West Indies. Next worst fellow group members could have been England or Netherlands. So BD just has to make the best out of this group as there is no easy route out of the preliminary stages. One thing that worries me is whether Shahadat can live up to the pressure and if Masrafee is capable of partnering. We are relying too much on the spinners.

[Spitfire_x86]

What's the big deal about World Cup? This time it will be a very short tournament for us. Our players won't get many chances to increase our misery.

Few people are concerned that we are not playing test cricket at all. A four nation single round tournament is much less significant than test matches.

[SS]

As this thread was world cup relevant, I am posting here.
We have finished the ODI series, and glad our boys got the total satisfaction of winning.
Still nobody is giving importance of WC which is about to begin soon (I guess within 100 days). BCB tried to contact different countries to play against us, and it's obvious that they will refuse to play us. But did they contacted the A teams especially A teams of Pak,SL or even Ind? Not sure if you guys agree with it, but it was pointed out in another thread by our few fellow BC members that our neighboring countries(especially in PAK) they have wickets like WI and also playing against A team of them could have gave us an idea where we stand.
I hope and also request to come up with a solution as this is imperative for the team's preperation.