Bangladesh's New Target 2024 T20 World Cup: Papon

After a disastrous outing in the Asia Cup T20, the Bangladesh national team is now preparing for the T20 World Cup that will begin late October in Australia. Ahead of announcing the squad for the World Cup, Nazmul Hasan Papon, the BCB boss, said they are targeting the next T20 World Cup after the upcoming one to do well as a T20 team. 

Bangladesh recruited a T20 consultant, Sridharan Sriram, who played the role of the head coach instead of the head coach Russell Domingo during the Asia Cup. But the Tigers failed to do well. 

“What we are doing now is not for this World Cup,” Papon told the reporters on Tuesday. “We have to target the World Cup after it. There is no coach who can change everything in a day. So we have to accept it.”

He also said that Bangladesh would go through some changes and experiments in the next few months aiming to form a strong T20 team and that may result in many ups and downs. 

“We have to have a long-term plan, and we are targeting the next T20 World Cup. We have to see some unexpected results in the process and we have to accept it,” Nazmul said. 

Nazmul also said that he is not sure if Mahmudullah Riyad will make it to the Bangladesh squad for the World Cup. 

After Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah is the most senior cricketer in the Bangladesh team. The allrounder has been going through a bad patch in the T20 format. He has already retired from Test. 

“Mahmudullah won many matches for us,” Nazmul said. “We have to respect him. If we cannot make a place for him in the team, we have to respect him (by giving him a chance to retire from the field). I’m not sure if he is in our World Cup team. I can only be confirmed if the selectors inform me.”