ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

November 1, 2021

Russell Domingo

Sheikh Zayed Stadium

Bangladesh

Pre Match Media Conference

Q. Talk me through the preparations for tomorrow's game.

RUSSELL DOMINGO: Look, it's been pretty chilled. We'll have a practise this afternoon. We've had some good discussions after the last game against the West Indies. We've had two pretty narrow losses, I suppose, one to Sri Lanka and one to the West Indies.

And obviously morale has been low after those particular losses knowing that our chance in the World Cup are probably over. But we'll be ready to play for tomorrow. Mentally the guys will be up for it and know it's an important phase of the competition. Still two games to go. And guys are really determined to put in a good performance in the next two games.

Q. Is it a task trying to pick up the players after the way in which you lost the last game in such dramatic fashion?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: I think so. Not easy. Players know that -- I mean, not just that game but even the first game against Sri Lanka we were probably on top for most of the game and came in stack at the end through one or two crucial mistakes.

Obviously the boys are gutted. It's been a tough couple of days. They know the expectation back home is high. They know the media interest is high. They probably feel they've let a few people down in terms of not crossing the line.

So not an easy task, particularly in a competition like this, to get guys' morales up, but they're playing for their country tomorrow. And as soon as they cross that white line they'll be giving 100 percent again.

Q. Looking at South Africa themselves, have you identified any areas that you can exploit ahead of tomorrow's game?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: They're playing well at the moment. Having worked with South Africa for a long time myself, we know that there's always a question mark regarding the way they play spin. Hopefully the conditions will help us a little bit tomorrow.

So there are certain areas that we'll look to exploit and look to focus on when we play against them. Will I tell you about that now or not is I don't think the right thing to do. But we've had some good discussions and some good meetings this morning to go over some of our plans for tomorrow.

Q. Word on Shakib Al Hasan, obviously a loss for you guys for the rest of the tournament. What are your thoughts on the impact of that?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: Obviously a big loss. Just balancing the side without him, when he's not there you go in either batsman light or bowler light. You might have to play a part-time bowler.

Obviously a big loss for the balance of this side. But also in terms of his leadership and the calmness that he brings around the environment in pressure situations, that aspect will be lost.

But it does provide an opportunity for someone new to maybe make his first World Cup appearance tomorrow, and we've got to see that as a positive for whoever that young player is going to be tomorrow.

Q. Next two games are going to be very important for Bangladesh for some good results, for some good memories. Are you ready to get a win in the next game?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: Look, I think every single game we play to win, and we know there's obviously an obsession with winning and a disappointment when you don't win.

I think our focus is very much on our process and how we've got to go about trying to achieve that win. Of course everybody, every single game they play, we're trying to win. But if you are just focussing on that, you maybe lose track of the things you need to do well in order to get that win.

So I think tomorrow's game in particular we need to focus on our particular skills, our processes, the disciplines you want to try to and bring into the game. If you do that, hopefully the result goes all right.

Q. There are two questions. Number one, you were already out of the contest for semis. But what can be achieved in the rest of the matches? And number two, there is talk regarding India players being tired, playing in the IPL. And do you think same case here for Mustafiz and Shakib?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: Look, number one, I think Bangladesh have only won one game in the second phase of the T20 World Cup ever. So there's an opportunity to improve on that record. To try and win two games will be a big stepping stone for us. There's a lot to play for in the next two games.

Our focus is entirely on tomorrow before we get to the last game against Australia. We first need to try to open our count tomorrow. So our performance tomorrow is really important.

And then the second thing regarding bubble fatigue. I can't comment on how Shakib and Mustafiz are feeling, that's probably a question only they can answer.

All I can say is when you are losing there will always be things you can look at and point towards, and I don't think we're in a position to do that.

We know we've made mistakes at crucial stages, and we cannot shift the blame to anything else but to ourselves. So we will take responsibility for that. Bubble life has been odd. I know I've been home for five weeks this entire year. So it has been challenging.

But that's the cord we've been dealt with, and it's been the same for absolutely everybody.

Q. Wanted to know how the team is, how do you plan to bounce back against South Africa, because there were moments in the West Indies game when we thought that Bangladesh would win. The game against Sri Lanka as well, four for 79 chasing 172. So these small moments, how do you get the team back on track? I know that the World Cup is probably over for Bangladesh, but these moments probably now at any lineup or any quarter in the team?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: I know the results haven't been great. We've played against Sri Lanka. We've played against West Indies and England, all three past champions, all three tough sides. In two of those games we probably won top 4 80 to 90 percent of those games.

We've got to look at the positives. We've got to look at the areas that we did really well. And there were a lot of good areas in those particular games where we had the West Indies under pressure. We had Sri Lanka under pressure. We were in good position with the bat.

We didn't finish or foul with the bat against the West Indies. We didn't finish or foul with the ball against Sri Lanka.

We've got to focus on the positive aspects there and then try to limit the mistakes we've made. We know we've made mistakes at crucial stages. But if you look at the age group in our side, I think we come into this World Cup with the youngest average aged player, guys like Nayeem, Afif, Shoriful, Mehidy, they're all young players.

In big events like this, it's to be expected that under pressure some players are going to make mistakes. And as long as they're learning from those mistakes and go forward gaining experience from these particular mistakes, it will put us in good stead going forward.

So very disappointed with the results, but in saying that two of those three games we were in really good positions and could easily have won both of those games. And we'd be sitting here cock-a-hoop this morning. Margins are smaller.

We focused on the things we've done well, realised the things we haven't done well and need to try to improve on those things and just gotta keep moving forward.

Q. Given how the campaign has gone, there's so much talk outside. There's so much happening. How does someone like Shoriful, and how does his performance get rated? And does it get lost in all the talk?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: I'm fortunate, I'm not on social media. I don't read too much of the media. Most of my social media used to be when I was involved in fishing, not so much cricket.

So I'm not too sure what's getting said out there. But like I said, there's been so many good performances from some of the young boys, Shoriful, Nimur has come on so well.

There's so many positives to focus on. And when things aren't going well, you sometimes forget to look at those positive aspects. Look, like I say, I think age-wise we're the youngest side in the competition. And people maybe forget that because you've got two or three really experienced players. But the vast majority of the players are all pretty young.

So whilst the result hasn't been great, I've been pretty proud of the ways the boys have fought hard in those tense encounters. I'm sure they've grown a lot from those experiences.

Q. When you select a team for a particular match, you go for one-to-one matchup or just regarding the form of the particular player, you select the 11?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: Look, there's no right and there's no wrong in selection. And I think in terms of media and opinion, it's always easy to talk after the fact as to who has been selected.

Form is important, particularly in this format. I think to carry players that are out of form can sometimes hurt you, especially your batsmen. If you're not in form, there's no time to find form in this particular format.

So form for me is an important thing. Matchups, I know it's a big throw-away phrase at this stage. But if you're a left-hand batter and playing against off-spinner, you've got to be good enough to play against that off-spinner.

If you're a left-hand batsman or right-hand batsman playing against a left-arm spinner, you've got to be good enough to bowl to that guy and that batsman has got to be good enough to play against that guy.

I know matchups is the big thing at the moment but not something that we look at all that closely all the time. There's obviously a place for it. But form for me is an important aspect.

Q. Just going back to the last game against West Indies, were you satisfied for the reasons behind (indiscernible) retirement and later re-entry?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: To be honest, I don't even know what the reasons were. So it's the last thing on our mind, to be honest. So I'm not sure if I can answer that or not because I'm not sure what their reasons were for his retirement.

Q. So there was no discussion between yourself and the team management?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: No, no discussion.

Q. Just leading up to the tournament, I guess there's been lots of sort of talk about playing fearless cricket, but what actually seems to happen during crucial moments during games like bowling against Sri Lanka and that run/chase against West Indies seems to be quite conservative tactics actually deployed. Is that something that you need to review going forward?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: Look, I think there's a whole host of things that can be reviewed going forward. And at the end of the day decisions get made on the field of play. And there's no right. There's no wrong.

Hindsight is always a great sight. At the end of the day we needed 51 of 24 balls against the West Indies. If someone said to you at the start of the game that's going to be the situation of the game, you would have taken that hands down. Against Sri Lanka we had them 70 for 4 chasing 170. If someone said to you at the start of the game that's the situation, you'd take that hands down.

But it's just in those closing stages, maybe we've made a few mistakes in terms of decision-making, in terms of option taking, in terms of dealing with the pressures. And those are the things that we need to maybe evaluate and look at where we can get better in those particular situations.

So for large periods of the game, like I said, we competed and probably were on top but just let it slip at the crucial stage, which has come back and hurt us at the back end of the tournament.

Q. Liton's trouble in opening, especially in powerplay. But he looked comfortable at middle of the innings in the last match. He did well middle in the World Cup, UAE World Cup too. Do you think this could be an idea to play Liton as middle or batsman?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: Look, it's something we've thought about for a period of time. Obviously very difficult when you've got Shakib and Mushfiq and (indiscernible). This young Afif who has come and done really well.

And so it can be a little bit cluttered there. Like I said earlier, hindsight's a great sight. Liton's had a fantastic couple of innings in 50 over cricket at the top of the order as well. If you ask Liton where his preferred position is to bat, he'd say at the top of the order.

So these are discussions we have had previously. And, look, he knows he's been under pressure and maybe moving down to number three or number four just take him out of that pressure environment of being against the new ball.

So that was a good positive for us to see and gives us a good option going forward. There's no doubt about that.

Q. Is Nurul Hasan fit for play tomorrow? And the other question is, after the injury there, several injury incidents, Bangladesh team is literally a 13-man squad now. Do you think it was a big mistake for not bringing more players to the team here?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: Like I said firstly, hindsight is always a great sight. Look, we came here with two spare batsmen and came here with two spare fast bowlers and came here with a spare off-spinner, two wicket-keepers in the group.

I still feel we've got enough cover for the last two games. Sohan won't be fit for tomorrow. That's why we've got Shameer who has been the back-up batsman. And Soumya was a backup batsman.

Those two batsmen will definitely be in the starting 11 tomorrow. So, no, I don't think we needed to bring more backup players. I think we've covered all bases and got enough cover for the rest of the games going forward.

Q. Before coming here, you enjoyed some results and got some respect from the (indiscernible). Now you're facing the travel time and team not doing well. What type of experience you are getting here?

RUSSELL DOMINGO: We know international sports results are massively important. I think if you look at the team's win rate over the last 12 months in T20 cricket, it's been fantastic. We've won some big series. And I think it would be very harsh to judge the team based on two narrow losses against two prior World Cup champions.

I think the team's made big strides going forward. There's some good young players that have come in for sure. We by no means the finished art. In this particular format there's a lot of room for improvement. But if you look at some of the young players that have stepped in, big performances against big teams.

I think there's a lot to be positive about. I know there's a lot of negativity around the side at the moment. I know there's a lot of criticism being thrown to certain players, certain aspects of the coaching staff.

But I feel the team has progressed immensely from being ranked No. 11 in the world maybe eight months ago to being ranked No. 6 is a big achievement for Bangladesh cricket, highest they've been in.

We know we're still a long way away from where we need to be. It's not going to happen overnight. It's a process and there's another World Cup in one year's time. And things have got to be put in place to make sure come for that World Cup that our side is an even better position than we are at the moment.