We have to be more competitive: Akbar

The World Cup-winning Under-19 cricketers were supposed to be part of an under-21 camp which was scheduled to begin right after the World Cup. But the plan didn't quite become successful as Covid-19 broke out soon after.

The youngsters have also returned to cricket like the senior pros. 12 of the World Cup-winning side have been called up to the ongoing High Performance (HP) camp. Eight of them have played in the recently concluded BCB President's Cup. 

The camp is going to restart on Tuesday after the conclusion of the 50-over tournament. Akbar Ali, wicketkeeper-batsman and skipper of the World Cup-winning team spoke to the media ahead of this.

"I think here there is more competition than in the age-level teams. Everyone is looking to fight. So I reckon we have to be more competitive," Akbar said.

The youngster is looking to utilise this experience to go ahead. "My main target is to up my standard. I always try to enjoy what I do. Here in the HP camp, I am trying to enjoy myself and learn things," he mentioned.

Akbar, playing for the Tamim XI in the President's Cup, did not have a great time with the bat. But the wicketkeeper-batsman said that he got the opportunity to learn many things: "Personally it was a tough experience. We were together for more than a week. I had the opportunity to learn a lot of positive things."

"I was in Tamim Bhai's (Tamim Iqbal) team. I spoke a lot to him as well as Mithun Bhai (Mohammad Mithun) and Bijoy Bhai (Anamul Haque). I tried to learn from them as much as I could. They spoke about a lot of positive thoughts. I hope that I will be able to make the best use of this experience in future," added Akbar.

Toby Radford has taken over as the head coach of the HP team. Regarding this, the youngster said, "It's difficult to comment on him right now. He has been watching videos of our batting. Probably he will soon give us feedback and tell us the aspects we need to work on."