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The Bangladesh national team want to focus on the present as they take on the West Indies in first of the three-match ODI series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur today. 

The match is scheduled to begin at 1:30pm Bangladesh Standard Time and T Sports will telecast live.

Bangladesh have been struggling to find rhythm in the 50-over format, as they secured only two victories in their last 15 matches and eventually lost four consecutive bilateral series.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz-led team lost to Afghanistan 3-0 while getting all out for just 93 runs in the third and final match during the recently concluded series in the UAE. 

Head coach Phil Simmons stated that they don’t want to erase those memories but will instead focus on the present.

‘As we know that we are better than that and we can play better, and that’s what we try to get in their head in, as you say, it’s [been] a short period,’ Simmons said in a press conference on Friday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. 

‘So we’re trying to make sure that today [Friday], when we practice, we practice in a way that’s going to put us in good shape for tomorrow. Not practice to eliminate what happened. That’s past. So we’re trying to make sure we focus on tomorrow and how we’re going to play tomorrow,’ he added. 

The middle-order batting has been misfiring for quite some time for Bangladesh. Since the last World Cup, the batters from fourth to sixth places have managed a collective average of 29.94, which puts them even below associates like the USA, Scotland, and Canada. 

The batters seemed clueless against the likes of Rashid Khan, the premier leg spinner of Afghanistan. 

However, Simmons said that the batters didn’t have any technical issues while facing leg spin. 

‘It’s definitely the mental side of the thing for that because we’ve played Sri Lanka recently and they have top-class spinners too. We played them well. So it’s definitely the mental side of it,’ said Simmons. 

Simmons also backed his captain, Mehidy, under whom Bangladesh lost nine out of 10 ODIs. 

‘Look, I think Mehidy is a good captain,’ said Simmons. ‘But you can’t judge his captaincy on [not being able to] chase 200 or 198 runs. Now, in the field, you can judge his captaincy. And I think the captaincy in the field has been good.’

Simmons reiterated that the batters need to click in order to get success. 

‘Winning games depends on your batsmen too. And if the batsmen don’t score runs that are needed, then you’re going to be in trouble. So if I judge him on the field, I think he’s been good. But winnings, it’s not been good,’ he said. 

Mehidy has been playing in the middle order too. While his average hasn’t changed much, the strike rate fell to 68.85 from his career strike rate of 76.79 while batting between the fourth and the sixth positions.

Simmons, however, said that Mehidy played slowly to meet the demands of the situations. 

‘Well, because of the stats we’ve had, that’s the way he’s had to play. Because, especially the one with him, you know, putting on that partnership, he had to build it back. And that’s been, I would say, the piece that we have to look at,’ he said. 

‘In the situation, he had to play like that. But I’m sure in a different situation, he would play according to that,’ he added.