Khulna: The Walton four-match T20 series between hosts Bangladesh and touring Zimbabwe will begin on Friday at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium.

In a pre-match press conference in the port city of Khulna, hosts captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza expressed his hope to start the campaign with victory.

“We respect the Zimbabwe team, but we are not thinking anything else except the win,” he said.

Talking about Bangladesh squad for the first two matches, the Tigers captain said, “This time our team combination is different, we have scope to make some experiments in the team, but our only target is the victory, It is an international match, so we have no other alternatives but to win.”

Regarding Zimbabwe, he said, although Zimbabwe lost some matches against Afghanistan very recently, they are still a strong opposition in this format of cricket, so we have no scope to undermine them.”
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This is a preparatory series for us ahead of Asia Cup and ICC World T20 and we have some opportunities to fix the correct team combination for the shorter version of cricket, Mortaza added.

Claiming himself as fit, the Tigers captain said though I had suffered from injuries during the BPL I am now fully fit and hope that I can play throughout the series.

Before the press briefing, Bangladesh team practiced from morning till 12.30pm.

Addesring the press conference, Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura said, “Bangladesh is now playing good cricket, They are strong team, but we are ready to take challenge.”

We have some talented players, who can change the scenario in any time, he said.

“In T20 cricket, no team can be termed as favorite. The team who will perform well will win the match,” the Zimbabwe captain added.

UNB/RI