Asia Cup 2018: Mashrafe Mortaza unaware of the changes made to the squad

Two losses in two days, Bangladesh are passing the harrowing time in the Asia Cup. They beat Sri Lanka in the tournament opener but failed to maintain that run against Afghanistan and India. They suffered a big blow while losing to Afghanistan by 136 runs, and were hurt even more as India outplayed them by seven wickets in a one-sided encounter on Friday.

In both the losses, Bangladesh faced batting obstacles mostly and their bowlers were not up to the mark as well. They will now have to win both their remaining matches to qualify for the final of the competition which is very tough.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is upset over the performance of the team and they recalled the southpaw batsmen, Imrul Kayes and Soumya Sarkar in the Asia Cup squad hoping an improved show in the upcoming encounters. The news of two new inclusions to Bangladesh team revealed before their match against India ended.

Masharafe was not consulted

Bangladesh team management recalled Imrul and Sarkar without informing Mashrafe Mortaza as the Tigers’ captain claimed after losing to India. At the post-match press conference, he said, “I am not sure who is coming to join the team. It is not clear yet, because there was no such discussion (with top management) about it. They were left out of the team for their poor performance as well.”

He stressed the fact that whoever comes into the team, the team will have to show some character and give their best to win the tournaments like Asia Cup. However, he was confident of bouncing back from the thumping defeat against India.

“I don’t know whether they worked anything technical to fix their problems. That will matter in a big tournament like Asia Cup. Think about Afghanistan (for the next match). We have to play against a tough bowling attack. That will not be easy for anyone. Everything is tough in international cricket. You have to score runs or take wickets admitting it. I am hopeful to bounce back as we did it before. Nothing is impossible.” Mashrafe further added.

Mortaza indicated that he was not in favour of recalling players who were left out for poor performances. It is being believed that the idea of sudden inclusion in the team came from BCB high-officials.

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