Bangladesh Aim to Learn ‘Self-Belief’ From U-19 Team

Rawalpindi: After suffering an innings defeat against Pakistan, Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque has insisted that his side will look to seek inspiration from the junior team, who won the U-19 ICC World Cup.

Pakistan on Monday defeated Bangladesh by an innings and 44 runs in Rawalpindi to lead the two-Test series 1-0. On the other hand, the junior team came out with a spirited performance as they defeated defending champions India in the pulsating U-19 World Cup in South Africa.

In a low-scoring summit clash, Bangladesh first bowled India out for a paltry 177 in 47.2 overs and then did well enough to score the revised target of 170 in 42.1 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis method.

“If you want to learn something, you can learn from your juniors and from everywhere. They can give us some knowledge on how to get good results,” Mominul was quoted as saying after the match.

“They really fought back on the ground and we should learn from them. We have to learn one more thing from them and that is the way they have shown self-belief,” he added.

The 28-year-old minced no words while criticising his team and said: “It was a very disappointing performance by us, there is no excuse for it and I think we have to improve a lot of things.”

Meanwhile, former Bangladesh captain and national selector Habibul Bashar said he is expecting quite a few players from the U-19 team to make it to the senior level.

“This is great for our cricket. We played in the Asia Cup final and failed, same with the Nidahas Trophy final, so we were struggling to cross the final hurdle but the junior team broke the jinx and that too at a World Cup which is a very positive sign for us,” Bashar told IANS from Rawalpindi.

“I am hopeful that we will get a lot of players from this group who will graduate into the senior team and serve Bangladesh cricket for a long time,” said Bashar who played 50 Tests and 111 ODIs for Bangladesh.

The second match will be played in Karachi from April 5 to 9.