Cricket - ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 - Bangladesh Practice - Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune, India - October 17, 2023 Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan during practice REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo
(Reuters) - The Bangladesh squad were not affected by skipper Shakib Al Hasan's unplanned trip to Dhaka in the middle of their World Cup campaign and they appreciate the fact that he went to hone his technique, Taskin Ahmed said on Friday.
Shakib travelled to Dhaka this week and local media reported he had a three-hour net session with his childhood mentor, before returning to Kolkata where Bangladesh play the Netherlands on Saturday.
When asked if team morale had taken a hit when Shakib left the squad, Taskin told reporters: "No, actually it's not affected (us) much. I think after he came back, we had a really good time.
"But actually, he went for some improvements, he has not batted as well as he expected."
Kolkata will host its first World Cup game on Saturday and Taskin said he expects a very good wicket.
"Normally when I played here before, it's a very good batting track. The outfield is pretty fast. But I think both bowlers and batsman are going to get some help," he said.
Taskin said Bangladesh's fielding has come good in the tournament, partly thanks to their former fielding coach Ryan Cook.
The South African is now the Dutch team's head coach and captain Scott Edwards said his inputs have helped the European side.
"Especially in terms of that sort of analyst side. He obviously worked for a long time with the Bangladesh team and a lot of these guys individually," Edwards said.
"He's sort of spreading what he knows about this squad, but there's obviously some new players (that) change over years as well."
Edwards also said it was time the team's main batters fired.
"I'm sure our top order would be very keen to start getting into this tournament with a few more runs than we have so far," he said.
"There is a positive that the guys in the middle and the lower order have been making contributions for us. So hopefully once it all clicks, we can start putting on some big totals."
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru, editing by ed Osmond)
