"For us, preparation was very important. We got good facilities here [in the UAE] and all our players utilised these seven days very well. The two matches we played here [against UAE] will help us build confidence ahead of the World Cup," Bangladesh all-rounder Mehedi Hasan Miraz said after wrapping up the two-match T20I series with a 32-run victory in the final game against the UAE in Dubai on Tuesday.
Miraz spoke about how a 2-0 series win against the UAE -- which included a nervy seven-run victory in the first game -- would help the team 'build confidence' ahead of the T20 World Cup next month in Australia.
The concern is whether it will be the same type of confidence that Bangladesh had taken to Oman and the UAE last year for the previous edition of the T20 World Cup.
Just about a year ago, then T20I skipper Mahmudullah Riyad gloated about how 'historic' series wins against Australia and New Zealand on slow and low Mirpur tracks had helped inject confidence in the side ahead of the last edition of the T20 World Cup.
How that confidence boost panned out for Bangladesh is known to the world -- with a humbling in the qualifiers against Scotland and an exit following zero wins in the Super 12s.
Mahmudullah is no longer on the scene, but does Miraz's claim of gaining confidence from wins against a T20I side ranked four places below Bangladesh -- who themselves are languishing in 9th place -- suggest the Tigers are again garnering a false sense of confidence ahead of yet another marquee T20 event?
It is probably time the Bangladesh cricketers called a spade a spade and treat this tour of the UAE as what it was meant to be: a scope for mere practice after training sessions at home were hampered by showers recently.
Even on what should have been an easy tour for Bangladesh, they survived a major scare in the first T20I. After that game, Miraz lauded Afif Hossain's knock of unbeaten 77, which indeed was an innings worthy of praise and helped Bangladesh make a turnaround from a batting collapse that should not have happened in the very first place.
The next assignment for Bangladesh is in New Zealand, where they will play a tri-nation series also involving Pakistan. The series, which will begin on October 6, will act as a prelude to the World Cup for all three involved teams .
Going head to head against top-ranked teams like New Zealand and Pakistan surely provides the Tigers with the perfect opportunity to assess their calibre in conditions similar to what they will face down under.
But Bangladesh still have plenty of issues to fix. If anything, the matches against UAE showed how far off the pace Bangladesh are in the T20 format.
Headaches range from squandering simple catches to not yet finding a stable opening duo as Sabbir Rahman fails to justify the gift of a callback to the national team, which came in spite of the batter having very little to show in the domestic circuit during his time away from the national set-up for over two years.
Probably the best way to do that would be to not obsess over confidence gained from wins over a feeble UAE and to instead start addressing how to approach the tri-nation series so that they can get at least some things in order before the mega-event in Australia.
