Bangladesh hopeful of Mehidy’s return against Afghanistan

Phil Simmons, the head coach of Bangladesh, is hopeful that Mehidy Hasan will be healthy enough to help the team in every way possible in their crucial game against Afghanistan on October 21 in Sharjah, which is part of the ongoing tri-nation series.

Mehidy missed Bangladesh's opening game against Zimbabwe, which they lost by 99 runs, after being laid low by fever. Bangladesh suffered another setback ahead of the tournament when regular captain Litton Das was ruled out of the ODI tri-nation series after failing a fitness test ahead of the Zimbabwe game.

Mehidy attended a practice session in Abu Dhabi on Monday, October 19, his first time leaving his hotel room since the Test series against Afghanistan. Simmons responded, "Yeah, it's great to see him as he had been in bed for the last couple of days struggling."

“He's still not fully there but hopefully with today and tomorrow he can get some more rest and be ready for the next game,” he added.

Simmons, on the other hand, is not dwelling on Zimbabwe's defeat, describing it as a bad day at work. “The energy is still good. Simmons stated, "We had a nice meeting this morning and put things on the table like we did. We didn't do well, but we know what we need to do now."

We have not been playing badly; rather, we have been playing very well. We had a day where nothing really went well, so we know how to come back from that. So we're going to work today and prepare ourselves mentally over the next couple days so we'll be ready for that next game,” he said.

Reflecting on the batting collapse against Zimbabwe, Simmons said Bangladesh failed to assess the situation after getting off to a good start. He stated, "When we batted, we just lacked the understanding of the situation and knowing that with a start like that, we just had to make sure we batted for the 50 overs and we'd have won the game." He added, "We just lacked the understanding of the situation."

“So just a few little points here and there, but things that add up and you lose the game. So we know that that's the small points we have to make sure that we take control of,” he added.

Hours after the defeat, Bangladesh Cricket Board president Tamim Iqbal held a lengthy meeting with the players and team management in the dressing room, which continued late into the night.

Reports suggested Tamim was unhappy with the team's direction and expressed his displeasure in strong terms. Simmons, however, offered a different reading of the president's message.

According to him, "The message [from Tamim] is to keep working hard, keep trying to make sure and understand that we're representing Bangladesh and we're representing how many millions of people and everybody is looking for us to be successful," and "I think that was the main message from him."