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We’re yet to reach next level: Taskin

  • Sports Correspondent
  • 28 March, 2023 12:00 AM
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We’re yet to reach next level: Taskin
Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed (right) bowls during the first T20I of the three-match series against Ireland at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Monday. – BCB PHOTO

Bangladesh pace bowler Taskin Ahmed said on Monday that they are yet to reach the next level despite their recent successes against England and Ireland in the shortest format.

Taskin, however, believed that if they can continue to develop in the same way, it will not take long for them to be a world-class team.

“We have not yet reached the next level,” Taskin told reporters at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium after Bangladesh registered a 22-run win over Ireland in the series opener of a three-match T20I series.

“But we are on the right track and the mindset is really good. If we can carry on, hopefully, our dream of becoming a world-class (team) will be true,” he added.

Bangladesh’s recent T20 victory came following their triumph over Ireland in the ODIs. They won the three-match series by a 2-0 margin after the second game was called off due to rain. Bangladesh are beaming with confidence coming into the series against Ireland considering they cleanly swept away world champions England in the three-match T20I series following a 1-2 defeat in the ODIs.

On Monday, Taskin finished with a career-best 4-16 to help the hosts restrict Ireland to 81-5 after persistent rain forced the umpires to set Ireland a revised target of 104 runs in eight overs.

Bangladesh earlier posted 207-5 thanks to Rony Talukdar, who struck a blistering knock of 67 off 38 balls while Liton Das and Shamim Hossain made 47 and 30 runs respectively.

“Something was missing (in the last T20I World Cup) and after learning from it, we can show (a good performance) and hopefully in the coming days, we will be able to show something better.

“Gradually we are improving by following a process and that is important. Another important thing is whether we are repeating our mistakes all the time or not.

“We have minimized our mistakes across formats and still, we are learning. The process is going very well and we are also very interested to learn. “We have a dream to be the top team in the world and we are playing cricket accordingly and that is visible on the field too. If we can continue like this, our improvements will also be reflected in the upcoming series as well,” he added.

Meanwhile, Taskin said that the team management had given them the freedom to express themselves while he added that playing on good wickets is helping them to increase their confidence.

“Fear of failure restricts us to express ourselves and the team management is telling us to play cricket freely and everyone is supporting each other because the management is giving us freedom.

“We are not in two minds while executing our skills and play as freely as possible to come up with our A game in the field and that is what is called aggressive cricket,” said Taskin.

“In good wicket, the accuracy of the pace bowlers needs to be 100/100 or else there is a chance of boundaries and even good balls are hit for boundaries. So the more we play on good wickets, our executions will improve eventually,” he concluded.