We've to win because 10 points are important: Miraz

Bangladesh all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz emphasized on winning the third and final ODI of the series against Afghanistan, stating that in the current context 10 points are important for every team since the series is the part of the ICC ODI Super League.  

The Super League points are important to confirm the 2023 World Cup in India even though Bangladesh won the series after their four wicket and 88- run victory in the first two matches.  

Having won those two matches, Bangladesh also moved to the top of Super League point table and had already made a giant leap towards the World Cup but since Bangladesh's tough series is coming up, they need to make sure to grab those 10 points that are still available from the Afghanistan series.  

Bangladesh will next visit South Africa and then will play against England at home. Since 2014, Bangladesh played 13 bilateral series at home and lost just one and that one defeat came against England. And winning against South Africa on their own soil is tougher for any team in the world.  

So considering all those factors, Miraz said they don't want to take the risk by taking the third match against Afghanistan lightly.  

"10 points are more important even though we won the series. The top eight teams will qualify for the World Cup," Miraz said here today. "It's very good that we won the series. Our next target would be to win the third match and take 10 points. A lot of big challenges will come. But I think if we can take these 10 points then the challenges ahead will be easier for us."  

Before the Afghanistan series, Bangladesh won the series against West India, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and lost to New Zealand. While they swept West Indies and Zimbabwe in a three-match series, they couldn't make it 3-0 against Sri Lanka at home. After winning the first two matches, Bangladesh lost the final ODI against Sri Lanka.  

Miraz said they are not willing to think about what happened against Sri Lanka, rather they want to focus on 3-0 result against Afghanistan.  

"We are not thinking any negative think, we always want to stay positive. We have a match tomorrow against Afghanistan and we want to win this," he said.  

To materialize this aspiration, it's high time now for the juniors to perform along with the senior players because juniors like him, Afif, Mustafizur and Liton had already spent five/six years in International cricket.  

Miraz and Afif put on a record 174-run for the seventh wicket in the first match to help Bangladesh win the game after being reduced to 45-6. He said that sort of performance shouldn't be just one-off incident, instead they should come up with those performances on a regular basis. 

"In fact, the competition is all the time. You have to perform in the national team. Young players are no longer young in terms of experience. So there should be no excuse, saying junior, senior. If we can't perform then someone else will come to our place. The sooner I adjust to the end of the day and adapt to international cricket, the sooner I will be successful and my career will be bigger."  

"Our seniors back us up, talk to us regularly. They want us to perform. If we can perform, their task gets easier and the team gets a good result, which is what happened in the first game. Me, Liton, Mustafizur now have played for almost 5-6 years, we have had some experience. We will try to use our experience to play good cricket."