ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

October 26, 2021

Ottis Gibson

Sheikh Zayed Stadium

Bangladesh

Pre Match Media Conference

Q. Ottis, so far the bowling has been pretty good in most of the matches. Going ahead against England, obviously a very different batting lineup. How much do you think the likes of Mustafizur or Saifuddin will have to bank on their varieties and their full skill set against England?

OTTIS GIBSON: We know that England are a very powerful lineup, and we know that we have to be on our A game if we're going to really challenge them and ultimately win the game. It's something that we spoke about last night in our team meetings, and we will have the opportunity today at practice to practice some of the things that came up at that meeting in terms of our delivery.

The key thing for us is to be accurate in what we're going to deliver and back ourselves. We know that they're going to come out hard, but we know that they also give you chances. They were chasing only 55 against the West Indies, and they lost four wickets. So that's something we can use as a positive. We know we must be at our best, but we know they will give us opportunities to take wickets.

Q. As the senior coach in this setup, are you concerned with the catching over the last sort of ten months since the pandemic? Because there has been a lot of skiers that have gone down, a number of catches that have gone down in this tournament, crucially in the last game. Is that a concern?

OTTIS GIBSON: Catches get dropped. In every cricket match, one or two catches go down. Obviously, when the catches sort of result in a player part that results in a game, it's highlighted more.

We do a lot of catches in practice. We do a lot of various catching drills. Ultimately, when the guys are out in the middle under pressure, then mistakes like catches going down happen. Is it a concern? I wouldn't say it's a concern because we practice it every day. But the fact is obviously, when it gets dropped, when catches go down, then at the end of the game, that's the thing that gets highlighted.

We work very hard on our skills, catching being one of them.

Q. You are going to face a lot of strong teams. Do you think you can beat anyone in this game?

OTTIS GIBSON: That's a bit of a strange question. Of course we're here, so we think we can beat any team in T20 cricket.

Yes, we believe we can beat any team in the competition. The qualifying groups was tough for us, and we got through that. A little bit nervy, but we're here now in the big dance, and we feel that in the big dance we're here not just to make up the numbers, we're here to try and beat them. On our day, we can beat any team.

Q. Coach, can you just give us a bit of an insight into what is the mindset of Litton Das? Obviously, he's been talked about as a huge talent, but he has cost the team probably with those two dropped catches, and he hasn't had a big score yet, and he's also picked up some bounty in terms of fine. What is the attitude that you have, especially from the coaching point of view? How do you look at him? How do you prop him up for the coming games?

OTTIS GIBSON: That is one of our key players.

He's one of our best fielders, first of all. The fact that a couple of catches went down doesn't diminish from what he contributes to the team. Of course anybody can drop a catch. Like I said before, it's highlighted because those catches, you can argue, contributed to the result of the game. But he's one of our key players, and he has been for a while.

The reality is that any other fielder in that position could have dropped those catches as well. So what we do is we get around him, we support him. We remind him of his quality and remind him that he's a key player for us, and we support that player, whether it is Litton Das or any other player.

Q. How important are pace bowler role against England tomorrow? Do you feel one more extra pacer in 11 will give a more positive vibe?

OTTIS GIBSON: It's a good question. We have to see the conditions first, but what we have got here, and I've said this from the beginning of the tournament, what we have got here is we've got all bases covered. We've got the skill and the cutters or whatever of Mustafizur. We've got the depth bowling of Saifuddin, and we've got the pace of Taskin. We've also got the pace, the left-handed variety of Shoriful in our squad.

So the captain and the coach, the electors that pick the 11 that goes on the field, they have the opportunity to look at all those options and then choose what they think is the best options to win the match. Conditions will depend on what 11 goes out on the pitch. But as far as our bowling is concerned, we've got all our bases covered with the guys we have here.

Q. There are two questions. Number one, you have already mentioned that catches drop in every match in cricket, but when dropping the catches to lose the game, how difficult is it to regroup the team before a big match against England? This is number one. The other question is there are a lot of controversies going back home, especially the former captain Mashrafe Mortaza raised a few questions, like saying he agreed the team is not performing well. Also, he thought that coaching staffs are not doing their job as well. What's your thoughts on that?

OTTIS GIBSON: To the second question, I have no thoughts whatsoever. That doesn't interest or concern me what anybody outside of our circle is saying. We know what we do here as a coaching group, so whatever anybody outside the group is saying doesn't really matter. What was the first question again?

Q. The first question is you have already mentioned catches dropping every cricket match, but when the dropped catches lose the game, how difficult is it to regroup the team before a big match against England?

OTTIS GIBSON: Again, that goes back to the individual and how he sees it. From a group point of view and certainly from a coaching point of view, we back that player. We get behind that player. We remind him of his quality. We remind him of his role in the team and the value that he brings to the team.

Like I said, anybody can drop catches at any time, and we mustn't allow that one dropped catch to affect the player too much. Outside of our group, on social media and stuff like that, we can't control what people are saying on social media. Only thing we can control is what is being said in the group and around the group.

Certainly, nobody's blaming that player in our group for the game. We're supporting that player and reminding him of the value that he brings to us and also reminding him there are four more games to go in the tournament. Hopefully tomorrow we can put in a really good performance, that player takes a brilliant catch, and everybody starts saying something completely different.

Q. You were obviously with England at the start of white-ball transformation. I'm wondering what you thought they've gone on to do since then. Gone from rock bottom to winning the World Cup and being regarded as one of the most dangerous batting lineups. Have you been able to sort of feed the Bangladesh bowlers a bit and give them an inside track on how they approach things?

OTTIS GIBSON: I think Eoin Morgan was crucial to sort of the way that England started to play white-ball cricket. They've picked obviously different players compared to 2015, and the brand of cricket that they play, they're positive all the time. They're going to take the positive option.

So I've spoken to our bowlers and our batsmen, England bowlers are looking to take wickets all the time, and England batters are looking to score runs all the time and put bowlers under pressure. The message is not to panic, understand that you are going to get hit. You might bowl a good ball and get hit because that's their mentality, but they also give you opportunities to take wickets.

So we must be calm. We must try and execute our skills plans. And when those opportunities come, we must take those opportunities of course, but we must -- the one thing we must remain as a bowling group is calm and very considered in how we approach every ball that we bowl.

Q. How do you assess Mustafizur Rahman's performance so far? He took some wickets in the past two matches, but with regard to his overall impact, are you happy with that? And with the skill set that he has, do you feel he's been able to deliver his best yet?

OTTIS GIBSON: Fiz is a key bowler for us, and he's good in any condition. I think we've seen, even in the IPL recently, the value that he brings. Of course in Bangladesh where his cutters are a lot more effective, it's different, but here the one thing I like about him more than anything is he's able to adjust to conditions very quickly. So he sees what the conditions offer, and he's able to bowl in that.

He's still a key player for us in our bowling lineup, especially at the back end of innings and so on. He can also swing the ball back in, which is something we've worked very hard on to get him to do. He's a weapon for us with the new ball as well as the old ball at the back end of innings.

Q. After a loss like that when team was in a winning position against Sri Lanka, you look up and see your next opponent is England. After a game like that, how do you assess the team's morale? And which of the areas do you think you can expose if there is any on the England side?

OTTIS GIBSON: Look, I said just two questions ago, the England mindset is always to be positive. On the day you're positive, but if the conditions doesn't allow for your positivity, sometimes you give wickets away. Like I said, they were chasing 55 against the West Indies, and they lost four wickets for those 55 runs. And most of those wickets, Moeen was run out, but some other batsmen got out.

Take it trying to play that positive role. On the day we play well, we play to our potential, then they will give us opportunities to win the game or to have a say in the game. If we take those opportunities, the result could very well go in our favor.

We're not scared of anything in the competition. England have a very formidable batting lineup. They play strong cricket. But like I said, we're here to compete and to win, and that's what we'll be looking to do tomorrow.

Q. We've seen in the last match England spinners are doing their job. What is your plan against them?

OTTIS GIBSON: To score as many runs as possible. That's our plan.