Shakib Al Hasan & Aiden Markram speak ahead of Bangladesh v South Africa

Shakib Al Hasan & Aiden Markram speak ahead of Bangladesh v South Africa in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.

[Reporter:]

Taking on South Africa which is coming back from a huge win, whereas you coming from after [defeat] to India what would be the approach you know what is the mindset of the team and what is it that you are going to tell your boys?

[Shakib Al Hasan:]

Well, we have to take one game at a time you know it in a World Cup it doesn't matter whether you won your last game or you lost your last game. What matters is on the day who is performing better. We saw South Africa flying high, we saw they lost against the Netherlands as well. They played brilliantly against England. That does mean that this thing does happen in cricket, especially in the World Cup. So, we will prepare the way we want to prepare ourselves. So, we want to play our best cricket and then we will see where we are.

[Reporter:]

How fit are you and is Taskin Ahmed fit to play tomorrow?

[Shakib Al Hasan:]

Taskin he is not available for tomorrow’s game, but hopefully he will be available after tomorrow’s game. He has some shoulder issues that he is suffering for last two games, so physio has decided that if he takes rest for 2 games then hopefully, he’ll be okay for the last 4 games which are important for us and Taskin is an important part of this team, so we don’t want to lose him in the middle of the tournament, and we don’t have much to replace him.

So better to give him rest and hopefully he can play 4 games.

And about my situation – I felt nothing at all when I was training yesterday and hopefully will be able to get through today’s session also without any pain.

[Reporter:]

Not a lot of Bangladesh players have played in Mumbai before, you yourself played in Mumbai in 2018 in the last IPL. So, do you think your experience in the IPL in Mumbai will help your team or its irrelevant now 5 years back?

[Shakib Al Hasan:]

I don’t think it’s that relevant at this moment, looking at last game, it was completely two different sides we saw. You know, day time there was a lot of runs, at night time, bowlers are getting a lot of help. So, I don't think it's relevant that much, but yes, given the fact that I played IPL, it will obviously give me some sort of idea. But it won't have any, I won't say any effect, much effect on the game. But we obviously saw the last match. The whole team watched it. So, they'll have pretty good idea and plan for every individual how they want to go about it.

[Reporter:]

I don't know if you are aware of the passing away of Bishan Singh Bedi, former India

captain and you being a left armer. I don't know if you are also aware of the fact that you, Bishan Singh Bedi, and Dilip Joshi took 100 wickets in 28 Tests, some of the fewer Test matches to this milestone which has been surpassed since. Did you ever interact with Bishan Bedi and if at all, yes, what was been your chat with him?

[Shakib Al Hasan:]

No, I don't think I ever met him or had an interaction with him, no. But I would love to meet him. Oh, sorry. Oh, he passed away, sorry.

[Reporter:]

Not talking about tomorrow’s match but the overall World Cup, can you explain what is it from a player's point of view to be in the world of Bangladesh cricket? There are a lot of emotions. I don't know how the pressure is, and how do you deal with expectations and stuff like that.

[Shakib Al Hasan:]

I think it is exciting. I can only tell what I feel. It's hard for me to tell what every other individual feels. But I think for me, it's very exciting. I know I am playing my fifth World Cup, but I still have the same interest, same ambition, same sort of fight in me to play for Bangladesh and to perform for Bangladesh. And till now I'm enjoying and hopefully I can finish this World Cup on a good note.

[Reporter:]

Just two questions. The first one is just quickly is Temba ready to go? And the second one is you have actually lost more ODIs yourself now against Bangladesh than you've won ODIs against Bangladesh. And South Africa has also lost more World Cup games against Bangladesh than they've won.

So, what do you sort of put that down to, and does that put your guys on high alert that you have to be fully firing from the get-go?

[Aiden Markram:]

Yeah, on Temba he's definitely improving. There hasn't been a final call just yet on him. I think they're going to make the call tomorrow. But he is at least in better spirits.

And then, whenever you play Bangladesh, it's obviously a massive game for us. We haven't done particularly well against them in the past, so that's extra motivation for us to come out and replicate what was a good performance against England, but more from an intensity level and a standards level, that's something that we're going to try to focus on and trust that if we take care of those sorts of things, hopefully it's enough for us on the day.

[Reporter:]

What would be the quantum of confidence gained from such an impressive win and the performance, especially when you're taking on a team from the subcontinent?

[Aiden Markram:]

Yeah, the game last night, or not last night, a couple of nights ago was a good game for us, but you still have to respect the fact that it's a new game of cricket starting tomorrow and against opposition that's become a really good white ball team and then put them into subcontinent conditions, obviously that aids them very well as well.

And we have to respect that fact. You can never take form as an individual or as a team for granted. And it's about us coming here tomorrow with positive mindsets, taking confidence that we can take, but understanding that we have to replicate that all again to hopefully get a good result.

[Reporter:]

Aidan, there's been some talk about whether it might be unfair on the Proteas that the other World Cup is providing such a massive distraction, certainly at home, but I actually wondered whether that was a very pleasant and welcome distraction for you, rather than a negative one.

[Aiden Markram:]

Yeah, I mean, we're following the rugby as much as everyone else, to be honest, so it could be a distraction for us, a good distraction for us as well. We're making all the time available to watch their games. And I suppose a lot of the hype is around them right now and rightly so. They're doing some special things once again as a team. It inspires us as a team. But, you know, we've not tried to put too much focus on outside noise, for lack of a better word. But yeah, we try to take motivation and inspiration from them. And certainly, their performance to get into another final provided us with an extra bit of oomph as well going into tomorrow.

[Reporter:]

South Africa looks like in the mood of thrashing everything, so on the other side Bangladesh is struggling. Do you think this is the perfect time to meet Bangladesh in this World Cup according to the conditions and the opponent's strength and the performance?

[Aiden Markram:]

No, I don't think you can ever say it's the perfect time to play anyone. I think we've all seen in this World Cup now that any team can beat any team on a given day and if you don't respect that fact, I think the game of cricket can really hurt you. So, tomorrow is an opportunity for us to take a bit of confidence that we took from England, but ultimately to try to replicate it. That's the challenge and that's what we're striving towards. And if we bring the right attitudes and the right intensities, we feel we give ourselves a good chance. It's never a guaranteed result at the end of it but it certainly aids us as a team to hopefully perform well.

[Reporter:]

Aiden you're no stranger to captaincy, but I wonder how it was different the other night given that the stage and the occasion and then also there's a lot of guys out there for an optional training session what's going on?

[Aiden Markram:]

Yeah, the guys love hitting balls and bowling - but I suppose I mean that opportunity to captain the previous game is not down to how you'd like things to happen. It was not, it was very unfortunate for Temba and we obviously missed him, his leadership on the field. But guys are here, they're keen to always chip away at their games and improve and I think that's why you see quite a few guys here.

But I do certainly think our previous game here was a bit of a rude awakening. We always knew it was going to be hot and humid coming to India in general, and especially Mumbai and places like Chennai. But it was quite brutal the other night. So, most of the guys have got their feet up but there are still one or two just ticking a few boxes and making sure that mentally they go into tomorrow feeling ready.

[Reporter:]

How is Heinrich Klassen shaping up? He looked out on his feet after his century the other day.

[Aiden Markram:]

Yeah, he's good. He certainly was manned down. Like I mentioned, the conditions were pretty brutal. He did a lot of hard work for us out there and I think it took quite a lot out of him. He pulled up nicely after the game. The body was really sore and he was quite fatigued. But he's been trying to get treatment and rest yesterday and very much so the same today in order to get himself good. But as far as I'm aware, you will do well to keep him off the cricket field. He's quite a tough guy and he'll be itching to go again tomorrow, I'm sure.

[Reporter:]

How do you account for your relatively poor record against Bangladesh? Where do you think they've caused you problems in the past?

[Aiden Markram:]

They're a fantastic team. If you don't rock up on the day and if your skills let you down on the day against a team like Bangladesh you will be put under a lot of pressure. So that's probably where we've got it wrong in the past. Naturally they bring a great attack that is well rounded now. You can't just say they're going to bring fantastic spinners because their seamers have done a great job in the recent past. So, they're a fantastic team. And it's like I mentioned, it's up to us rocking up here tomorrow, understanding what we need to do to get a good result and trusting in the process that the coach and the captain has been driving.

[Reporter:]

Just on Klassen- I guess two pronged questions. Firstly, why do you think that he specifically struggled so much? Is it because he sweats a lot? And the other thing is, how does that recovery process look like? You mentioned a lot of treatment. What does it entail?

[Aiden Markram:]

Yeah, Klaas is a big sweater, so I assume it would play a role but I think for anyone in those conditions it would have taken a lot out of him and would have taken a day or two to recover most certainly so it's not his fault that he sweats a lot but unfortunately that's what he does. He gets quite worked up out there in the middle. I'm sure we all saw that.

He's a competitor and he's really passionate about trying to do well for his country. I think you combine all of those factors together and come the end of the game I think you're quite fatigued. The treatment and stuff he's been doing, obviously a lot of sleep, it's one of the most important things and it's quite easy to do.

But nutrition, massages, checking in with the physio, those sorts of things are quite important. So, he's loading up his fuel tank and hopefully he'll be in a good space to go again tomorrow.

[Reporter:]

South Africa have not batted second too many times in this World Cup, in this year actually. Chasing 200 plus was also a while back for South Africa. So how do you prepare for that in the nets or in the team plans if that situation comes up tomorrow because batting first like you all showed us is a high scoring game and the only time you bat it second in this World Cup ended up in a loss against Netherlands

[Aiden Markram:]

Yeah, it's more of an approach where we're trying to see it as especially to get in as bad as we're almost trying to approach it as if we're still setting a target. Although we are chasing in the game itself to apply yourself as a batter and to get yourself in, doing it the same way as you would if you were setting a target. And then once you're feeling in, to sort of try to understand the situation and what's required of you at that certain time. And we have batted a lot and we haven't chased a lot, so it'll be a great challenge if we do get to chase tomorrow and try implement what we've been chatting about on off the field.

[Reporter:]

Basically, on your overall campaign playing in the subcontinent conditions is your team more comfortable now playing in these conditions. How has that been an advantage?

[Aiden Markram:]

Yeah, I mean, I think we're fortunate with quite a few guys now being involved in the IPL. So, having experienced the various grounds, because each venue is quite different in terms of conditions, and having that experience now within the camp certainly helps us as a team.

I still think if you look at it generally the wickets have been really good. We expected to come here and the wickets play pretty well and plans and the build-up towards this World Cup was with that in mind. So that's pretty much where we're at. The experience of IPL players, I suppose, has really helped and the experience from guys in the management, the coaching staff that have played a lot of cricket here in India or coached in IPLs has also helped us a lot.

[Reporter:]

Bangladesh captain Shakib-Al-Hasan obviously didn't play in the last match and still unsure whether he'll play tomorrow or not. So how does the plan change for you according to whether he plays or not?

[Aiden Markram:]

Yeah, I think you do your homework on if he plays and then if he's not playing, what does the combination of their team look like after that. So, you cover both those bases, really. Obviously, understand that he's a fantastic player, really experienced and a massive player for Bangladesh, there's no doubt about that. So, whether he plays or not, we've addressed game plans and things like that that we as a team can try to implement tomorrow. But whether he plays or not, we don't have too much of a role in that.

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