T20 World Cup 2022: Shakib Al Hasan excited about Bangladesh pace bowling prospects

Hobart, October 24: Bangladesh's veteran all-rounder and captain Shakib Al Hasan is excited to see the team's fast-bowling unit finally coming of age on the big stage.

Bangladesh tasted success in the T20 World Cup 2022 at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart on Monday (October 24), as their pacers led the show to hand them a nine-run win over the Netherlands, defending a modest 145.

"It was an important win, I've played all editions but haven't won, that was on the back of my mind," the Bangladeshi skipper said after their victory.

Taskin Ahmed returned with career-best figures of 4/25, while his rookie new ball partner Hasan Mahmud played a perfect foil, to finish with 4-1-15-2.

T20 World Cup 2022: Taskin Ahmed bowls Bangladesh to opening win over Netherlands

The seasoned Mustafizur Rahman, who was struggling of late, returned wicket-less but he too was at his tidy best (4-0-20-0) in the back end, as the Dutch folded for 135 in exactly 20 overs.

"The way our pacers bowled was tremendous. We understand the importance of fast bowling now, across formats," Shakib said.

"We've found talent. Hasan's new, Taskin's developed well in the past few years. He has the experience and pace."

The pace bowlers are coached by South African great Allan Donald, while the fielding department is looked after by Shane McDermott.

"We want to be the best fielding side given that we have a young team. They are agile and quick. We have the belief that we can save 5-10 runs which can make a big difference," he added.

The batters, however, left a lot to be desired as they frittered away a solid start by Najmul Shanto and Soumya Sarkar, who put together 43 runs in five overs.

"We kept losing at regular intervals and it did not help us. We knew 155 would have been a great total, but we were 10 runs short," Shakib said.

Having bagged the Man-of-the-Match award, Taskin Ahmed said he just kept it simple and the ball did the rest.

"It's a good win for us and we needed it. We played well as a team, happy to have contributed. (On first two balls) I stuck to my basics, saw there was movement in the first innings. So I bowled Test-match lengths."

Asked about his learnings from Donald, he said: "I can move the ball both ways, that was the main focus. I worked on that coming into the World Cup."

The Dutch skipper Scott Edwards said, "The run outs were poor, Colin and Edwards did well. We're looking forward to the India challenge," he said.