Two of Bangladesh’s most gifted cricketers Sakib al Hasan (L) and Tamim Iqbal share some thoughts after a team training session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Thursday.— New Age photo

Bangladesh will take the confidence from their performance against Pakistan when they take on India in their second match of the Asia Cup, skipper Mushfiqur Rahim said on Thursday.
The home side lost the opening match by 21 runs but fought until the 45th over to give the former world champions a big scare in what they thought would be an easy walk in the park after putting 262-9 on the board.
‘We had a good game although we didn’t win,’ Mushfiq said at a news conference. ‘I thought we played well in most patches in the first game. Hopefully we can carry that confidence and not repeat those mistakes which we had done in the Pakistan game,’ he said.
‘Winning or losing is not that important for us. With the team we have what is important is that we play consistently well against such big teams and we can put up a fight in every match,’ added Mushfiq.
‘Then a time will come when this new-found up confidence will help us win matches. We lost the first match after going very close and that doesn’t happen regularly,’ he said.
‘We see that this [a close fight] happened today and the next time it happens after a long gap. By that time the confidence that we gained is gone. But if we can create a situation like this regularly very soon we will turn into a winnings outfit,’ said Mushfiq.
The wicketkeeper-batsman added that they will also take confidence from the fact that India’s bowling attack is not as strong as the two other Asian giants participating in the tournament.
‘Though we haven’t won a lot of matches against India but because their bowling attack is not that strong as like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, we always carry some the confidence  against them,’ said Mushfiq.
‘Whenever we play against them we carry some happy memories as our batsmen did well against them on many occasions,’ he added.
Mushfiq asked his bowlers to have some patience while bowling against such a strong batting line-up and hoped that through their perseverance they will be able to make the batsmen commit mistake.
‘To bowl against them and bowling them out is quite difficult. But at the same time I feel that a good batsman can be out with one good ball or he can have a bad day. If we can capitalise on that and can just keep our patience and bowl in the right length and according to our plan, we can be successful,’ said Mushfiq
The skipper expects little assistance from the wicket which he said is totally different from the typical Sher-e-Bangla wicket which assisted the spinners in the past. He termed it as a batting paradise and asked his batsmen to utilise it to the fullest.
‘From the BPL the wicket is batting-friendly which is not normal,’ he said. ‘It was made to assist the batsmen because Twenty20 and one-day cricket is a game for the batsmen,’ he said.