Bangladesh begin 2023 World Cup preparations from Windies series
The Tigers are set to play three ODI's against the Windies from 20 January and head coach Russell Domingo is already putting those plans for 2023 in place.
Bangladesh have already started planning for the 2023 World Cup and their first assignment is the series against the visiting West Indies.
The Tigers are set to play three ODI's against the Windies from 20 January and head coach Russell Domingo is already putting those plans for 2023 in place.
"The World Cup seem to be three years away but we know how quickly that goes. This is the first step towards the World Cup. There might be one or two changes in batting positions with some guys batting in positions they haven't batted before. But at least six to eight months before the World Cup, that batting line-up has to be settled and established. They have to play in the position that they will play in the World Cup," Domingo told the media on Monday.
"So now might be trying to find what we think is the best batting line-up. As we get within six to eight months of the World Cup, we settle on that and those guys playing in those positions leading into the tournament. By the time the tournament starts, they'd have played 20 games together in their particular role leading into the tournament. There isn't going to be chopping and changing but looking at different options under different conditions, and then settling into something in the last year leading into the World Cup," he explained.
The former South Africa head coach also elaborated on how the bowling of the Bangladesh team will look in the ODI series and what the balance of spinners and pacers will be with the conditions in mind.
"It depends very much on conditions. We have Shakib in the side who will be bowling ten overs. In the sub-continent, you always want to have one other full-on spinner. We need to decide who that is going to be. You always want to bowl twenty overs of spin in sub-continent conditions. Maybe one or two part-timers. But you also need to make sure you have enough pacemen in case the wicket offers something to the fast bowlers. Particularly it being the winter, 11:30 am start. There might be a bit of movement in the first hour with a little bit of dew and fog around. We need to make sure we cover both bases," Domingo added.
"There's no doubt that we always wanted to play at least three seamers in our 50-over side. There are some exciting young prospects at the moment. Guys like Shoriful and Hasan Mahmud. Rubel and Mustafiz have been bowling really well. Taskin has shown improvement. There's a whole host of guys pushing for places. We need to make sure we provide them with the opportunity to play one-day cricket. I think we can't just be a team that plays spinners all the time. We are going to New Zealand in six weeks' time. There I can assure you we can play only one spinner so we have to make sure we have seamers who are ready to play international cricket. I can't see myself playing an ODI without three seamers," he concluded.