The teams have arrived in India for the much much anticipated ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup scheduled from October 5 to November 19. Ahead of the big tournament, several warm-up matches have been arranged between the contesting teams to test their performance and skills. One such warm-up match between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh commenced on September 29 at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati.
The Bengal Tigers emerged victorious in their first warm-up match against the Sri Lankans. Despite captain Shakib Al Hasan’s absence, the team managed to bowl out Sri Lanka for 263 and successfully chased the target with 8 overs to spare.
The factor responsible for Hasan’s absence
Bangladeshi skipper Shakib Al Hasan couldn’t play for the team as he sustained an injury while playing football. At his place, Mehidy Hasan Miraz led the team in the warm-up match. However, this turned out to be troublesome for the former as fans on social media began spreading rumours about his inclusion in the team squad saying that he will be not playing any of the World Cup matches while other fans claimed that he will not lead Bangladeshi team in the World Cup.
In a turn of events, former Bangladeshi cricketer Mashrafe Mortaza bursted on the fans through a Facebook post criticising them for spreading unfair rumours. Mashrafe called it a mental sickness and said “Which generation are we seeing, what kind of thoughts are they growing up with? What will they achieve in life by growing so much jealousy in their minds?”
Looking back at other criticisms Hasan faced
Just recently, fans slammed Shakib for calling Tamim Iqbal “childish” in an interview after the latter was ruled out of the squad. Ahead of these criticisms, Mashrafe approached the fans to be supportive towards the whole team in their pursuit to win the World Cup on the Indian soil.
Bangladesh will play its second warm up match on Monday i.e October 2 against last time World Cup champions England followed up by its first World Cup match on October 7 against Afghanistan.
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