T20 World Cup preparation not ideal, says Shakib

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan said on Saturday (May 4) that their forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup preparation is not 'ideal' as they are not preparing against the leading sides ahead of the showpiece event. Bangladesh are preparing for the global event with the ongoing five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe and they are also scheduled to take on the USA in a three-match series after the conclusion of the home series. In the previous edition of the T20 World Cup in 2022, Bangladesh played a tri-nation series involving New Zealand and Pakistan as part of their preparation. Even though they couldn't win games in the series, they certainly put up a good fight. Subsequently, Bangladesh earned their first win in the main phase of the tournament since defeating the West Indies in the very first edition back in 2007 after beating Netherlands by nine runs in their opening game of the campaign. Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe by three runs to earn their second win in the main phase and were on course to reach the semi-final that was dashed by Pakistan, eventually. "It will be wrong if we think about the World Cup by considering our performance against Zimbabwe and USA. World Cup will be played in a different place and the more we can handle pressure, chances will be higher of doing well," Shakib told reporters in Dhaka on Saturday. "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," he said. "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)," he said. "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," he added. Shakib also pointed fingers at the decision makers of BCB as he felt it would have been better if they played the super league phase of the ongoing Dhaka Premier League, country's traditional list A tournament, in the shorter format version instead of completing it in usual manner. Bangladesh is going through a heat wave and he felt playing 50 overs was inhuman. "It would have been better if the Super League( DPL) is played in T20 format. It is inhuman to be in the ground for the whole day under this heat," he noted. "It could be handled more responsibly. We have T20 World Cup ahead and in that case it would have been helpful for the national team. Somehow it did not happen," he added. @Cricbuzz