Simmons backs his bowlers against Pakistan despite injuries leaving Bangladesh short in the bowling department.
Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons backs his bowlers to deliver against Pakistan despite injuries.
Bangladesh’s head coach Phil Simmons anticipates that the rest of the pace attack will step up in their T20I series against Pakistan, which begins on Wednesday, because Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed are sidelined by injury.
While Mustafizur sustained a thumb injury in his final IPL 2025 match for the Delhi Capitals last week, Taskin has been sidelined for the past two months due to an ankle issue.
“You miss your senior seamers,” Simmons said on the sidelines of Bangladesh’s training session in Lahore on Monday evening. “As we saw, how Fizz (Mustafizur) was bowling in the IPL then. We will miss him. It is also a chance for somebody to take his place in this series. Let’s hope one of the bowlers decide that he wants to fill in for Fizz in this series. Our bowling is usually our stronger suit in this format. But having two senior bowlers, Taskin and Fizz, out, then it balances off.”
Though they did not choose a successor for Nahid Rana, who chose to skip the tour for personal reasons, Bangladesh’s selectors have called up Khaled Ahmed to take Mustafizur’s spot. In addition to Khaled, Bangladesh’s team included Tanzim Hasan, Hasan Mahmud, and Shoriful Islam. In an effort to strengthen their bowling assault, they have also added Mehidy Hasan Miraz to replace the injured Soumya Sarkar.
Despite the 2-1 loss against the United Arab Emirates, Simmons stated that the team is in a positive frame of mind and anticipates winning the three-match series in Lahore.
“It was difficult to lose the series in UAE, but then sometimes that lifts you up. Our morale has been great, so we are hopeful (the result in UAE) will lift us up,” he said. “I think there’s always a great chance of winning the series. People keep saying Pakistan are not playing well. Again, it is about what happens on the day. We have a good chance of winning the series here. We are working hard very hard to try to improve in all aspects. Hopefully we get better in this series.”