Winning, not experimenting, is Bangladesh priority against Zimbabwe in T20 series

CHATTOGRAM, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto ruled out experimenting against Zimbabwe in their five-match series starting on Friday as preparation for the T20 World Cup next month.

“Firstly, I want to win the series,” Shanto said on Thursday. ”It is in our mind that the series is a preparation platform for the T20 World Cup but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll do a lot of experimenting. We don’t want to take them lightly.

“I believe experimenting is not imperative because all 15 players are capable of defeating this Zimbabwe side. So, we will be trying to figure out the areas we can improve and go to the World Cup with a good preparation.”

Bangladesh will be without allrounder Shakib Al Hasan and pacer Mustafizur Rahman for the first three matches.

Shakib is playing in the Dhaka Premier League to improve his match fitness while Mustafizur just returned from the Indian Premier League, where he took 14 wickets in nine matches.