Buoyant Bangladesh look to shun 'fear of failure'

Bangladesh's head coach Chandika Hathurasingha did mention 'psychological safety' before the start of the T20I series in Chattogram indicating the players have been given license to play fearless and positive cricket without having to worry about losing their place if anything goes wrong. The word 'psychological safety' has been a massive boost for the cricketers and it has been reflected on the pitch in the recent few matches. After his career-best T20I figure on Monday, fast bowler Taskin Ahmed also said the same thing. 

"Fear of failure is what imprisons you from doing anything. We have been told to play free cricket. We have been given the freedom to execute our game the way we want so that we give our everything and bring the A game on the field," Taskin said after the first T20I.

The Tigers will be eying to seal the T20I series as they take on Ireland in the second T20I on Wednesday. The series win is definitely the top priority for the Tigers, but it will be equally important to continue the process that has begun under Hathurusingha. 

On similar wickets and conditions, Bangladeshi batters will be expected to go big again. And the pacers, they have been in the spotlight for some time now and will be expected to do the same on Wednesday despite there being a little help for them on Chattogram wickets. 

Bangladesh's fearless approach has mostly been reflected in their batting. After breaking their own record of the highest ODI team total twice, the hosts almost broke their highest T20I total on Monday. The rain didn't let them do that. But the batting has caught everyone's eyes, that's for sure.

Litton Das and Rony Talukdar's extraordinary batting in the powerplay, accompanied by Shamim Hossain's useful contribution were the highlights of the Tigers' innings on Monday. And the way Litton and Rony went all gun blazing is the proper example of how Bangladesh want to play T20I cricket. 

"Bangladesh are a world-class batting unit. Shakib and Litton both got picked up in IPL. Talukdar (Rony) has come off a really good BPL. The bowlers are finding it difficult to bowl, of course," Ireland's assistant coach Garry Wilson said at the pre-match press conference.

It was more of a team effort on Wednesday as the skipper Shakib Al Hasan mentioned after the match And that's what the team wants from the players, not relying on one or two individuals to win matches. What's more exciting is the young players coming in and wanting to perform without panicking a bit.

"This is what we want. It is difficult for one or two guys to always contribute, want this kind of all-round performance. They set the pace with the way they opened and played attacking cricket. The new guys coming in are not panicking, they want to come out and perform. The way they are bowling is fantastic, we have a couple more guys who are not getting opportunities because of such performances from our pacers," Shakib said.

Bangladesh's fast bowlers have been given the due credit by the Ireland team before the second game. The visitors will certainly be more cautious playing the Tigers' pace trio.

"I do think there's less in this wicket for pacers than Sylhet. But clearly, there's been a change of tactic from Bangladesh in terms of preparation pitches for white bowl games. And yeah, I think their bowlers have been bowling pretty well which they are allowed to do and I think they bowled well so far the whole series and it's certainly something that we'll have to contain going into tomorrow as well," Wilson said.

While Bangladesh are absolutely on top of their game, it is important for Ireland to fight back in the tour. And they have everything up their sleeves to do that. 

"We have guys who are more than capable, we just haven't shown it so far in this trip," mentioned Ireland's assistant coach.

Wednesday will be another high-scoring match. And with the same starting time of 2 pm, the galleries are expected to be half empty again.