Hathurusingha 'pleased' with Bangladesh's squad depth ahead of World Cup

The Asia Cup campaign may not have gone as planned but Bangladesh will be happy to end the tournament on a high with a much-awaited victory against India. They sure won the last bilateral series between the two sides last year but this victory was their first against India away from home in 16 years in this format.

Just like India, Bangladesh decided to give some game time to the fringe players and players like Nasum Ahmed, Mahedi Hasan and Tanzim Hasan Sakib, who are not guaranteed picks in the World Cup squad, grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

Head coach Chandika Hathurusingha believes Bangladesh had a good Asia Cup and injuries to key players hurt their chances.

"Beating [India] is huge for us to go into the World Cup. We go with a lot of confidence, especially with what happened in this tournament. We had a really good run up to the Asia Cup, but in this tournament we struggled to put on a collective effort. I am not giving excuses, but we played in different conditions like Kandy, Lahore and Colombo. We had some injuries at crucial times," Hathurusingha said.

He was particularly satisfied with the performance of the players who were given chances to test the bench strength. 

"The pleasing thing for me is the depth of our other players. We could give three guys the opportunity to showcase their talent and what they are capable of, thinking of the World Cup selection. It gives us a really good depth to select the 15 players," he mentioned. 

Back in the side after missing out on the last three matches, off-spinning all-rounder Mahedi Hasan impressed both with the bat and ball. He scored an invaluable 29* off 23 and later bowled exceedingly well at the middle and death. 

"Overall as a cricketer, I was very impressed with his attitude and demeanour on the field," Hathurusingha said on Mahedi. "I didn't see him much before, but he is so confident when he is bowling. He bowled some big overs in this game. He got us back into the game with Shubman Gill's wicket."

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But the surprise package was Tanzim Hasan Sakib. He was drafted into the squad as bowling cover after the injury of Ebadot Hossain on the back of a decent ACC Emerging Asia Cup. 

Tanzik bowled with pace, hit the deck hard and got the ball to move. Although Rohit Sharma's was his "dream wicket", the way he got fellow debutant Tilak Varma out was the highlight of his probing opening spell. 

Then he came back and defended 11 off the final over. He bowled the back-of-the-hand slowers to perfection and nailed a perfect yorker under pressure to seal the match. 

With Ebadot all but ruled out of the World Cup, Tanzim could be the first choice pacer to replace him.

"As you know Ebadot [Hossain] isn't there for the World Cup. I think [Tanzim] showed us what he is capable of. I am pretty confident that if I had to rely on him, he has done well for his chances," Hathurusingha said.