CHATTOGRAM, Jan 15, 2025 (BSS)—Fortune Barishal coach Mizanur Rahman Babu believes they will be in winning track despite the departure of the key foreign players like Shaheen Shah Afridi and Kyle Mayers.

Both of the foreign recruits were pivotal in defending champions Barishal’s dominance in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

But Babul said they can still win the game without their service.
 
“Our players are in good stead despite the departure of the player like Shaheen Shah Afridi and Kyle Mayers. With the squad, that we have, we still can win the matches. Hopefully we will start with a win here,” Babul said during the pre-match conference here today.

Fortune Barishal will take on Dhaka Capital in their first match of the Chattogram phase. Dhaka came back to winning way with a bang after losing six straight matches.

Babul said their target is to win all three matches that they would play here, regardless of how strongly Dhaka got into the groove.

“We have three matches here. We will definitely try to win all three of them. We are taking it one by one,” he said, adding that the week-long gap helped them get freshen up.

“We played our last match on January 9, and here we will play on the 16th, after a week’s gap. We tried to be refreshed as much as possible and then we had two days of practice,” he said.

Babul, however, refused to admit that they are fully equipped at this point as far as their strength is concerned.

“We are worried more about the death overs, pace bowling, we are working on it. If we can get better, we can say that we are fully equipped,” he said.

Like Sylhet, Chattogram will also be a highly batting favourable, according to Babul.

“Sylhet and Chattogram’s wickets are similar. There are usually high scores on these pitches, like a T20 game should be,”  he added.

While there was concern about shorter boundaries due to giving batters an undue advantage, Babul termed it true wicket, saying that even the bowlers can get the advantage if they bowl in right areas.

“Boundary is 70 meters straight and 67 in the square. I think it’s okay,” he said.

“Wicket looked very good. To me it felt like it will help the batters. And if the bowlers can bowl at the right areas, they will get help as well. True wicket, I feel.”

He also informed that pacer Ebadot Hossain might get into squad in Chattogram phase of the BPL.

“Ebadot might make it to the playing XI. He was out since we had a star-studded squad. But now he might have a chance,” he added.
The local players domination is a pleasing sight to experience, Babul said.
 
“In the previous years, foreign players used to dominate the top-order scoring. This year we are seeing local players stepping up. Recently, Tanzid Hasan Tamim and Liton Das played a fantastic innings. I am very satisfied till now,” he added.