'The first step is to get through the difficult group stage': Hathurusingha on Bangladesh's expectations in T20 World Cup

While saying Bangladesh had a good preparation for the upcoming T20 World Cup, head coach Chandika Hathurusingha admitted that Bangladesh are in a difficult group and the team's first target will be to qualify for the Super 8s. The Tigers' head coach spoke in a press conference before leaving the country on Wednesday.

The T20 World Cup will take place in the US and West Indies from 2 June and Bangladesh are in Group D along with Sri Lanka, South Africa, Nepal and the Netherlands. The Tigers will have to win at least three matches to get past the group stage.

"Our preparation, I thought, was very good. We had a good camp in Chattogram and then we played five games against Zimbabwe. So, in those five games, we had the opportunity to give most of the players that we wanted to expose in certain situations, we were able to give them. There's a little bit of concern about some individual performance. But other than that I thought that was a good preparation," Hathurusingha said.

He said he understands the high expectations from the countrymen regarding the tournament, but the team's primary target will be to get past the 'difficult' group stage.

"I understand we as a country now, have high aspirations because we have been playing good cricket generally out of ICC events. It's the same. We have high expectation as players and the staff and as well as the fans and the country."

"The first step is to get through this difficult group stage. We are in a very strong group. Then we take, if we get through that one, that's the main target, first one, and then we'll take it from there," he added.

Hathurusingha was asked about the controversy before the 50-over World Cup last year and whether he and the team are in a better headspace right now. 

"My headspace has always been very clear. But, yeah, there was other challenges at times because of injuries and different issues. This time, the selection was, I thought, pretty good. One big one was Taskin's situation. Other than that, I'm very pleased with the outcome," he answered.

Bangladesh will begin their T20 World Cup campaign on 8 June against Sri Lanka. The Tigers only went past the group stage once in 2007. Hathurusingha believes they have an opportunity to do better than before this time.

"Yeah, every tournament is an opportunity for us to do better than what we have done before. Yes, T20 cricket has been challenging for us. That shows where we stand in the rankings. So there's no denial. But then we are counting on our preparation to do better than what we have done before," he concluded.