Bangladesh's cricket star Shakib Al Hasan isn't happy with their preparation for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024. He feels they should have played tougher opponents to get ready. Shakib pointed out that playing strong teams like New Zealand and Pakistan before the last World Cup was beneficial. Right now, Bangladesh is playing Zimbabwe at home in a five-match T20 series. Their next stop is the USA, another World Cup host, for a three-match series. Shakib has asserted that Bangladesh's performance in the 2022 T20 World Cup was moderate, falling neither on the extreme positive nor negative end of the spectrum. He suggested that Bangladesh should evaluate themselves based on this performance.
"In the last World Cup we performed reasonably and though we didn't do extremely well no one will say we did bad. If that is our benchmark then we have a chance of crossing it in this World Cup and if we want to do that we have to win three matches in the first round," Shakib told reporters in Dhaka on May 5.
"In Australia (T20 World Cup in 2022) we went after playing against New Zealand and Pakistan and so certainly we went to the World Cup on the back of very good preparation and taking that into consideration this is not ideal. But this is the best we can as far as preparation is concerned," Shakib added.
Shakib offered insights into Bangladesh's decision to play the USA series before the World Cup, hinting at the team's strategic goals.
"A big reason behind playing against USA is to get adapted to their conditions and to know about the place because there are not too many players who played in USA. Very few have the experience of playing there in Florida (2018) and we will get accustomed with the conditions by playing this series but at the same time I would say this is not ideal (preparation-wise)," Shakib added.
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As of now, Bangladesh has not disclosed their squad for the T20 World Cup, and they have until May 25 to submit their roster of players.
Notably, Bangladesh are placed in the Group D along with teams like South Africa, Sri Lanka, Netherlands, and Nepal. They will open their T20 World Cup campaign against Sri Lanka on June 8.
Besides Bangladesh's group, the tournament features a total of 16 teams divided into four groups. Group A pits India, Pakistan, Ireland, Canada, USA.
Group B pits England and Australia against Namibia, Scotland, and Oman. Group C sees the West Indies hosting New Zealand, Afghanistan, Uganda, and Papua New Guinea.
Notably, a total of 16 matches of the T20 World Cup 2024 will be held in Lauderhill, Dallas, and New York within the USA. The remaining 41 matches will take place across six different Caribbean islands, including Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Barbados.
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