ICC World Cup 2011: Pakistan vs. Bangladesh - Warm-up match at Mirpur
Asian rivals Pakistan and Bangladesh are taking their warm-up match in contrasting moods.
The co-hosts don’t consider it more than a practice game where they could work out their strategy before the big event.
Yet the mercurial Men in Green consider it a serious work out before they start their campaign against Kenya at Hambantota.
The two teams have clashed once only in the World Cup and the Bangladeshis have a 1-0 record against their more fancied and experienced opponents, the win came at the 1999 World Cup match in Northampton and led to the minnows acquiring
Test status.
Since then Pakistan has won every game against them including a 5-0 blanking the last time the two teams met in a bilateral One Day International (ODI) series held in Pakistan at the start of 2008.
Since then the two teams have moved on and the Men in Green, deprived of any cricket at home since the last two years, have been struggling to remain in the top half of world rankings.
The Bengali Tigers on the other hand have shown real signs of improvement typified by their crushing 4-0 win over the Kiwis in an ODI series at home last year.
For Pakistan, the ICC World Cup is vital as they bid to put the country’s image back on the map following the damning spot fixing scandal that broke out during the Lords Test match against England last year, the fiasco has cost three
players their careers at the international level yet the Men in Green are determined to put in a fine effort on the field.
The Pakistani approach to the game can be gauged by the words of their seasoned pacer Shoaib Akhtar, who is set to take part in his last World Cup.
"Any match before the World Cup is going to be tough", Shoaib Akhtar said. "We are going to take it as a proper match rather than thinking it to be only a practice. We have seen India playing against Australia, which was a pretty serious
match”.
He cited the example of the Tigers win over the Black Caps, adding that it was a known fact in his team’s camp that the minnows were not mere pushovers especially at home. He thinks that they have the capability to reach the knock
out stage of the event.
Pakistan recently played a tough six match series against the Kiwis, that they won 3-2, the victory has given them real momentum and they are hoping of more of the same against the Bengali Tigers.
The match would give them an opportunity of testing out some of the youngsters in the squad especially the trio of Ahmed Shehzad, Asad Shafiq and Junaid Khan.
The three talented players are yet to play an international game in the Subcontinent and this game would be an excellent way to test them out in front of a sell-out crowd at Mirpur.
On the other hand, the coach of the co-hosts, Jamie Siddons, stated that Bangladesh were not taking the match as anything more than a practice game. However, they would like to test some of the players in the team and give them exposure
against a fancied team like Pakistan.
Jamie Siddons said, "It is a really good challenge, actually a great practice game. Pakistan are a good team but I'm not worried about them, I'm worried about us. We won't be experimenting; the batting line-up will be close to our
actually starting XI”.