Bangladesh women’s cricket team will face the world’s No. 1 side when they begin their first bilateral ODI series in Australia on Friday, and head coach David Hemp believes the biggest challenge will be mental.
Bangladesh have spent the past few days preparing in Australia, including a practice match and sessions on quicker, bouncier pitches than they normally encounter.
“We’ve been fortunate, we had a practice game, but also the wickets that we’ve been practising on have been excellent,” Hemp said in a video released by the Bangladesh Cricket Board.
“The wickets have a little bit more pace and bounce than what they’re used to. But they’ve adjusted really well and really tried to adjust and adapt to those conditions.”
Hemp said the preparation had given the players a good chance to settle into unfamiliar conditions ahead of the opening ODI.
“It’s been a really good four, five days so far in terms of preparation,” he said.
Bangladesh will face an Australia side ranked No. 1 in both ODIs and T20Is, and Hemp believes accepting the quality of the opposition will be an important part of the challenge.
“We can’t hide away from the fact that we’re playing against the best women’s team in the world. They’re number one in ODIs and also in T20s,” he said.
“So the biggest challenge will be getting our heads around that. They’re a good team with really good individual players.”
Hemp does not want Bangladesh to approach the series defensively. Instead, he wants the players to remain positive in their decision-making and execution.
“What we don’t want is to get back to Bangladesh in a week’s time and say, ‘Oh, I wish we’d played this way, I wish we’d played that way.'”
The coach wants the approach to extend beyond their performance with bat and ball.
“We need to be positive in how we go about everything that we do and how we not just play the game but also approach the game and how we think about the game,” he said.
Hemp has worked with the group before, including during the World Cup qualifier and around 18 months ago, which he said made his return to the setup easier.
