‘Tigresses ready to seize the opportunity’

Bangladesh women’s cricket team captain Nigar Sultana Joty expressed excitement at the opportunity to lead out her country in yet another global International Cricket Council (ICC) event.

Ahead of the upcoming all-important ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in England and Wales, the Bangladesh skipper also mentioned that it is an absolute privilege for her captaining the Tigresses for the third time at the T20 World Cup.

“I am very excited to be leading Bangladesh into our seventh ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. It is my sixth World Cup, and I still have happy memories of playing my first tournament back in 2016 at just 18 years old. I did not think then that I would be captaining the side for the third time at a T20 World Cup,” Joty wrote in her column for the ICC.

“I have to say, it has been an a wonderful journey leading the team to multiple World Cup tournaments. It has been both a challenge and a huge privilege for me. I think what pleases me the most is seeing the growth in our younger players and how they have become confident, and the team spirit we are building,” she noted.

“The growth in the team was really clear in 2024 when we got our first win at a T20 World Cup for 10 years. Beating Scotland was such an important moment in our team’s history, and we are ready to build on that as we prepare for this year’s campaign,” she added.

The women in red and green have been drawn in Group 1 alongside Australia, South Africa, India, Pakistan and the Netherlands.

Despite some big names in the group, Joty believes they have it in them to upset the established powers.

“We have been drawn into a really tough group, with teams that have regularly made finals and semi-finals, but we believe that we can win any game we go into, and we are hoping to have our best-ever tournament,” she explained.

“We’ll also face the Netherlands, who are making their debut, and we can take confidence from beating them in the Qualifier. It was really important for us to win every game of that tournament, just as much as earning our place in the World Cup,” she stated.

“In bilateral series since the last Women’s Cricket World Cup, we have not had the results we would have liked, but we have had good individual performances,” she said.

The right-handed batter added, “Shorna Akter and Sharmin Akhter batted well in the most recent series against Sri Lanka, while Sultana Khatun produced career-best figures in the final match, which we lost narrowly.

“We are now into a tri-series against Scotland and the Netherlands in Edinburgh, which will also help us adjust to the conditions. This World Cup will be the first time we have ever played in England, so it will take some time to get used to things, but we are excited to see what we can do,” she hoped.

“It was very encouraging to hear that the prize money has been increased for this year’s tournament as it could have a really big impact on women’s cricket in Bangladesh. The T20 format is really important for the growth of the game because it has more excitement, more intensity and nowadays people show more interest in this format. It has a huge impact on the growth of women’s cricket globally and we are excited to be a part of it,” the 28-year old concluded.