I am looking for impact, not performance: Sriram

Bangladesh cricket team's technical consultant Sridharan Sriram faced the media earlier today right after the announcement of Bangladesh's 15-man T20 World Cup squad and what he had to say was a welcome revelation for the fans.

Sriram was brought in to instil a proper sporting project for the T20 setup in the country. He was brought in to revolutionise the dynamics of how the game is played here and to gradually integrate the modern style of T20 cricket into the Bangladesh cricket team. His statements seem promising in that regard.

Speaking of the modern style of play, Sriram stated, "What I am looking for is impact, not performance. Bangladesh will win if seven or eight players make an impact. A 30 or a 25 in 17-18 balls is an impact for me. A small example of this is the way Mosaddek went after Hasaranga in the over after Mahmudullah got out, that's the impact. I think performance is overrated in T20 cricket. A team could still lose if they have performers. But if we have more impact, chances are, we will win more games."

Sriram has emphasised winning short battles within the game and carrying momentum from them. He added,"We want to win critical moments in the game. Bangladesh have lost a lot of close T20 games. The overall results would have looked a lot better had we won half of these games. Why are we losing close games is something I am really keen to understand. We need to have critical moment awareness. If we win small moments, overall we can string those results together. Chances are, we will win close games."

When asked about Bangladesh's recent Asia cup debacle, Sriram shared his two cents, "There was a huge positive in the way we played in the Asia Cup. We needed to win both games but it doesn't mean we didn't play good cricket. I please request everyone not to be results driven. Results are everything in sports but there needs to be a process and plan in place. As long as we have that direction, that's all I am accountable for."

Sriram was brought in to implement a style of play never seen before in Bangladesh's T20 setup. If he'll be able to execute it or not, only time will tell.