Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka | We Put Men on the Moon, Why Can't We Have Reserve Days: Rhodes

Bangladesh coach Steve Rhodes was left disappointed and frustrated after his side’s ICC 2019 World Cup match against Sri Lanka at Bristol was washed out without a ball being bowled, saying he considers it as “one point lost”.

“Yeah, it was very frustrating. We really targeted this sort of game as two points, and I know that Sri Lanka would have fought very hard and are no pushovers at all. But we do see it as one point lost, and that's disappointing,” said Rhodes at the post-match press conference.

“But realistically, what can we do about it? Absolutely nothing. And now all we can do is win our games coming up, one at a time and just think of that, which is the next game West Indies and try and win that.”

The wash-out at Bristol came after West Indies’ encounter against South Africa at Southampton on Monday was also abandoned due to rain after a few overs of play, and Rhodes said that considering the incessant rain, he would have liked to see reserve days built into the schedule.

“Yeah, I would (there should have been reserve days). I think when you look, if you know the English weather, sadly, we're going to get a lot of rain. We never know when the rain's going to come. People from all over the world keep asking me whether it's going to rain; I don't know.

“But at the moment, we're seeing some problems. And I know logistically, it would have been a big headache for the tournament organisers, and I know that it would have been difficult, but we have got quite a lot of time in between games, and if we have got to travel a day later, then so be it. We put men on the moon (laughing) so why can't we have a reserve day, when actually this tournament is a long tournament?”

Rhodes also spoke about the expected recovery time for Shakib-Al-Hasan’s injury, saying that he is hopeful of him taking part in the next game against West Indies, with skipper Mashrafe Mortaza also echoing his coach’s sentiments at the post-match presentation.

“Yeah, so he (Shakib) picked up a little injury, as you all saw in that game against England. He fought on and battled on, and played extremely well with an injury.

“We're very, very optimistic that the treatment that he'll get this week and the way that he can recover well; we're very optimistic that he can play in that next game against West Indies.”

Mortaza added, “I think Shakib will be fine, he still has four or five days to recover.”

Bangladesh play West Indies in their next match at Taunton next Monday, and Rhodes said that his side were confident of dealing with the bowling and batting threat that they will be presented with.

“We've played against the West Indies bowlers, recently, out in Ireland. Certainly Oshane Thomas, as well, when we played against him in Bangladesh just before Christmas. So we are well aware of what they have got and we know what's coming and we've got some plans to try and deal with that.

“I'm very, very happy with the way we play the white ball, particularly, when it's short. I think you've seen some of our games in particular against South Africa, that didn't worry us. One of their most explosive players is Andre Russell, and he's a formidable opponent. He's one of the best hitters in the game, by far, and on his day, he can be very, very difficult to bowl at. So he can take a game away from you, but they have others, like all these international teams.

“But we know we've got some good players ourselves, so we won't be worrying too much about who we're playing against, and we'll be hopeful that they are going to worry about some of our players.”

Mortaza also said, “It isn’t going to be easy against West Indies, Taunton is also a very small ground. But we don’t have much of an option apart from playing hard.”