Jamie Siddons, the Bangladesh batting coach, feels that if they can challenge Pakistan and New Zealand in the upcoming T20I tri-series then they will consider themselves to be ready for the T20 World Cup.
A 2-0 series win against the UAE recently came as some respite for Bangladesh who have been quite below-par in Twenty20 Internationals in the recent past.
Bangladesh had their first training session in New Zealand's Lincoln, Christchurch on Tuesday (October 4) to begin their preparation for the tri-series, which will be their last competitive cricket before the global tournament scheduled in Australia from mid October.
"We can't ask for any better (preparation-wise ahead of the T20 World Cup) - finalist last World Cup [New Zealand] and Pakistan is obviously on the up. And if we can challenge them, we are getting ready for the World Cup," Siddons told reporters on Tuesday.
Siddons said the conditions in New Zealand would be quite similar to Australia, which is a good thing for Bangladesh ahead of the big event. "We just came from Dubai and played a couple of games against UAE. Had a week practicing there and the facilities were fantastic (in UAE).
"We came out of 40 degrees and so it's nice to be in some cool weather, at least for the Aussie guys in the group, but conditions are very similar looking at the wicket over there and the indoor center really nice. "Hagley (Oval) would play a lot like Australia, I think early season Australia is pretty similar to what it is here," he said.
Siddons cautioned the youngsters in the team not to take things lightly, as they look to the inexperienced lot to make up for the absence of senior players. Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim retired from T20Is recently while former T20I skipper Mahmudullah failed to make the cut in the World Cup squad.
"The boys are coming along and we have a pretty young team. Some of the senior players have retired or not on this tour and the young team were excited, but they have got a bit learning to do. We would be looking forward to see two pretty strong teams here," said Siddons.
"People like Sabbir and [Mehidy Hasan] Miraz opening the innings is very different to Tamim and Litton [Das]. Litton is still there at number three or four so we still got a little bit of senior players over there but the youth is very exuberant and energetic and that's what we want to see and bring on table," he added.
Bangladesh will begin their tri-nation series campaign against Pakistan on October 7 before they take on New Zealand on October 9. Bangladesh will then face the same opponents on October 12 and Pakistan on the following day in their remaining matches of the double-league format tournament. The Top two teams from the league will progress to the final which will be held on October 14. Hagley Oval in Christchurch will host all the matches.
