Too much focus on Rashid may backfire

Bangladesh's senior batsmen urged they need to make sure that they don't let leading T20 bowler Rashid Khan get into their head ahead of the Afghanistan series.

Bangladesh will travel to Dehradun on May 29 for the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan. The three games will be played on June 3, 5 and 7 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun.

Tigers began a preparatory camp at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium from May 13 and put all their emphasis on the upcoming assignments against their Asian rivals that will be followed by a tour the West Indies.Rashid is expected to be one of the biggest threats for Tigers and considering his recent performance in the ongoing Indian Premier League it looked to be hardly surprising.

Rashid, who is currently top-ranked bowler in ICC Twenty20 ranking, played extremely well in the IPL and helped his franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad stormed into the final before losing to Chennai Super Kings at Mumbai on May 27.

From the opening day of the preparation camp till May 26 when it was eventually concluded most of the time Tigers were engaged in exchanging their views regarding the spin threat of their opponent that is expected to be led by Rashid.

The arrival of Mujeeb ur Rahman in the IPL and his exploits with the ball for his franchise King XI also was something that did not went unnoticed by the visitors but not to an extent like it happened to be about Rashid and his variations.
Opener Tamim Iqbal and vice-captain Mahmudullah acknowledged the fact that the Afghan bloke is performing at his peak but asked his team mates not to lose their sleep over him. 'For any batsman the most difficult part is his quick arm action and there is a vast improvement in his accuracy.

Perhaps six months back he was not that accurate,' Tamim told reporters ahead of the series trying to point out the major reason behind the recent success of Rashid. 'He is quite successful and managed to trouble all the leading batsmen of the world. But that does not mean he is unplayable. If we can express ourselves there is no reason why we won't be able to negotiate him well,' he said.

Tamim said he is not concentrating on Rashid alone as their opponent have a few other good players in their team and emphasizing one individual only suggests of carrying negative mentality.

'I am not such a person who will put all his focus on any single individual as they have some other good players in their team and some excellent bowlers. Just focusing on one player will only suggest of carrying a negative mentality,' said Tamim. 'Now he is the best T20 bowler but we have overcome such kind of challenges earlier and earned success. I am hopeful it will be the same this time as well.

It is not only Rashid if you think too much about any one thing in particular, sometimes you fail to deliver despite knowing how to do it because you are over-thinking,' he added.
'Perhaps he is bowling at the peak of his career but rather thinking too much about him if we start thinking about our own strength it will be better,' he added.