When asked whether Bangladesh would be better off without Tamim facing up to Fazalhaq Farooqi, Hathurusinghe called it a “weird question”. When asked about Shakib’s scathing attack on Tamim, Hathurusinghe just smiled.
Hathurusinghe himself had caused a stir last month when he said that people should “wake up” if they were dreaming about Bangladesh winning the World Cup. Speaking to Dhaka-based newspaper Prothom Alo, Hathurusinghe had said: “For whatever reason, our captain [Shakib] was appointed five weeks ago. I came six months ago. This is not ideal [so close to a World Cup]. But it doesn’t mean Bangladesh can’t do anything good in the World Cup…
“Bangladesh’s biggest achievement is three wins in a campaign. So if someone is dreaming that we will win the World Cup, I will tell them to ‘wake up from their sleep’. It is possible to do something better than before. We are keeping our goal big – to reach the semi-finals.”
The question popped up again in Dharamsala, and Hathurusinghe responded: “My job is to take the pressure off from the players. People can dream, can aim. They can have goals. We are trying to have a good World Cup, win matches. Our aim is to get into the semi-final. It can be a dream.
“We all want to win the World Cup. Since you asked me our realistic goal, if we can win four or five matches we can get into the semi-finals. This is our first target. We have a good enough team to do this. We have to reach the semi-finals stage.”
“We have two options [to take Tamim’s spot]. We will be in a better place to make that decision tomorrow morning,” the coach said. “We will see if we bat first or second, and then take a decision. Wicket looks really good for one-day cricket. It has a nice covering of grass. I think it will be a really good sporting wicket. We are expecting high scoring in this ground. We will decide the combination tomorrow morning.”
Often, a big win has papered over many cracks for Bangladesh. This World Cup opener, against Afghanistan, is a game which Bangladesh desperately need to win, and for more than just the two points.