Najmul Hossain feels maiden T20I win over England could be a game-changer

Bangladesh batter Najmul Hossain feels that their maiden T20I win over England could be a new start for them in the shorter format.

Bangladesh brought current world champions England down to earth by earning a six-wicket win in the three-match series opener at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. It was their 50th T20I win but more importantly it was a pretty start to a new chapter under the guidance of newly appointed head coach Chandika Hathurusingha.

Hathurusingha turned Bangladesh's ODI squad from also-rans to a force to reckon with during his first stint and that began with their win over England in the ICC World Cup in 2015. Following that win, they beat India and South Africa in their own backyard to announce their arrival in the 50-over format and with time developed into a challenging ODI side in the international cricket arena.

Many inside the cricketing fraternity feel that the win over England in the World Cup, also on March 9 coincidentally, gave the team much needed self belief that drove them to be in the league among the best. Najmul feels it can be the same case with their maiden T20I win over England.

"They are one of the best teams in the world, so the win will give us a lot of confidence. We will slowly build our team, like the ODI team has been doing well," Najmul told reporters after the T20I series opener at ZACS on Thursday.

"Winning the first match will give us a lot of confidence, but we must start afresh in the second game. There will be new plans but the motivation and thinking will change after this game. We should win the series from this position. We have to play well on that particular day," he added.

Bangladesh restricted England to 156-6 in their stipulated 20 overs and later beat them by six wickets as they reached 158-4 in 18 overs. Najmul made 51 off 30 balls with eight fours to lay the platform for the win while Shakib Al Hasan made unbeaten 34 runs to complete the required job.

Najmul, who earlier told Cricbuzz that he is willing to play aggressively if the team requires, said that he was not thinking too much about playing a stroke-filled innings but his knock was in stark contrast to the anchor roles he usually plays for his side.

"I wasn't given a specific plan. We just tried to continue with the momentum from the openers. We stuck to a normal plan, reacted to the ball. We tried to apply the way we batted in the BPL. It was nothing different than that. There was no pre-planning. I reacted to the ball. I tried to use the gaps, which is obviously why I could find the boundaries," he said.

"I have been scoring regularly, which allows extra confidence. Game awareness gets better," he said adding that he was carrying the confidence of being the highest scorer for Bangladesh in the last edition of ICC T20 World Cup.

"It certainly helped me scoring runs in such a big tournament. I tried to bat with that confidence, but every day is a new day. The feeling is good inside, but then you have to start every innings like it's a new day.

"The batsmen have been given freedom in this series. Impact can't happen quickly. It takes time. It depends on wickets, conditions. I think the batsmen have a lot more freedom, and soon there will be more impact," he said.

Najmul said that the approach of debutant Towhid Hridoy was very pleasing as it made him comfortable in the middle and added that both of them knew each other well considering they played for Sylhet Strikers in the just concluded Bangladesh Premier League that saw them stitch some valuable partnership in the middle.

Nazmul and Touhid (24) added 65 runs off 39 balls in the third-wicket stand to prevent the hosts from having any collapse during the middle overs "His (Towhid) approach and intent, in his first international match, gave me a lot of confidence. He never got nervous playing against such a big team," said Nazmul. "We just batted the way we batted in the BPL, where we had some big partnerships.

"The way we made the comeback in the last ten overs (of the England innings), that gave us the confidence. Then we started well with the bat. We knew that two more partnerships will get us close to the win.

"He (Hasan Mahmud) bowled an important spell. I think his BPL performance gave him confidence today. Hasan Mahmud, Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur bowled really well in the last few overs. They played a big role in closing them down on 156-6," he concluded.

Meanwhile, English opener Philip Salt feels that losing two set batsmen off consecutive deliveries hurt them big. England were in a great position to set Bangladesh a massive target after Jos Buttler (67) and Ben Duckett (20) shared a 47-run stand for the third wicket to take them to 135-2 after being sent into bat first.

However, Bangladesh demonstrated a great fightback in the match by dismissing both batters in successive deliveries to halt their scoring rate. Duckett was bowled by pacer Mustafizur Rahman off the last ball of the 16th over while Buttler was dismissed by pacer Hasan Mahmud in the first ball of the next over.

"We know that we could have ended the innings better. In T20 cricket, when you lose wickets in successive balls, it always hurts, having two new batters at the crease. But that's part of the game. On another day, we might finish at 180. Today we couldn't get that," Salt told reporters in a press conference after the game.

"The surface got a little bit better as the game went on and the lights kicked in. The Bangladeshi team's knowledge of the conditions really gave them a step in the right direction today," he said. "They used that quite well. I would say the wicket got slightly better. These guys play very well in their home conditions and without knowing the surface and knowing the conditions, it's tough."