Bangladesh Women keen to get going in World T20 year

Rumana Ahmed, the Bangladesh Women one-day international captain, is keen for her team to gain experience and momentum ahead of the ICC Women’s World T20 2018 later this year.

Bangladesh will play five ODIs and three Twenty20 Internationals on their tour of South Africa. The series marks the start of a busy period for them: they also have the Asia Cup T20 in Malaysia in June, a 10-day tour of Ireland, and the Women’s World T20 Qualifier in the Netherlands, where they will aim to seal their place for the main even in the Caribbean in November.

“Our main ambition will be to get as much experience as possible from the tour,” she told reporters ahead of the team’s departure from Dhaka.

The team has played no international games since they made it to the Super Sixes stage of the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2017 in Colombo last February and will need to shake off rust. However, they have been busy with camps and domestic tournaments. They also played limited-overs series against India A and Ahmed was one of the two players from her country to experience a two-week stint with the Women’s Big Bash League as a rookie player.

“It was not that we were sitting idle for the last 14 months,” she said. “We had camps and practice matches so I hope we will be able to perform better compared to the past.”

The experienced Salma Khatun, who was reinstated as T20 captain, added, “We might have taken a step back, given that we have not played any international cricket in the last 14 months, but we were in touch with the game, practising and playing domestic matches. We will improve the more we play.”

For the next nine months, Bangladesh will have among their support staff Devieka Palshikaar, the former India leg-spinner and assistant coach, and Anuja Dalvi, a physiotherapist who was closely associated with the Indian team. They will be working with David Capel, the former England all-rounder, who is the team’s head coach.

“We are getting better facilities now,” said Ahmed. “Both our coaches (head coach and assistant) are from abroad. Devieka worked with us in Sylhet for around 15 days and has shown us the technical aspects. So, we are looking forward to better days.”