'We have to play with guts' - Mashrafe

The gap between Bangladesh and South Africa in terms of experience and performance is significant but the home captain Mashrafe Mortaza has urged his team to play fearless cricket.

South Africa are the second-most successful T20 team in international cricket apart from being one of the five teams to have played at least 75 T20s. Bangladesh languish below Ireland, Netherlands and Afghanistan in terms of wins and have only played 42 matches in this format since 2006. While many of the South Africans play in the IPL, Bangladesh haven't had a domestic T20 competition since December 2013 and their only T20 moment of note is the win over Pakistan in April, their only T20 game since they hosted the World T20 in 2014.

Mashrafe is also keen to see how his team, which is full of confidence after ODI series wins at home against Pakistan and India, reacts against such strong opposition.

"South Africa have a number of players who can single-handedly win them a T20," Mashrafe said. "We don't have many such players but if we can play as a team and maintain our consistency, we will do well. We have to play with guts. T20 is a game of courage. We have only one option: to play with self-belief. It would be better to sit at home if we are fearing them. It can happen so in that case we should keep that off the field.

"What happened in the past will certainly not be of any help. What we did in the last series won't come to use either. On the day, we have to start and finish well. If we are consistent, it will give us confidence. We don't have a good record and we play very few T20s. We have only one experienced T20 player and that's Shakib [Al Hasan]. They have 8-10 players who regularly play T20s across the world. They are ahead of us in that regard. But it is only a piece of statistics. It will be a different game altogether when we play well in the middle."

Mashrafe is pinning his hopes on his bowlers keeping South Africa to around 160, and said he was happy to see the pace bowlers come to the fore after years of spin being Bangladesh's only bowling strength.

"We have been reliant on spin for around 10-15 years but since the Zimbabwe series, we have been getting positives out of using three pace bowlers in the XI. Spin is still our strength but pacers are also contributing in a big way. We have to ensure our best possible combination is out in the field.

"Our bowlers can win us the game. India can chase 300-plus totals but our bowlers were outstanding in that game. Of course our batsmen are doing well but I still feel our bowlers can win us a T20. If a team scores 200 it would be hard for us to chase. Our batsmen will find themselves in the game when the opposition can be restricted to around 150-160."

On Friday, Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha said it was an exciting time to be a Bangladeshi cricketer, given how much their team was winning against higher-ranked opposition. "I think it is an exciting time for Bangladesh," he said. "I mean it is always good to win but the way we are playing and winning is more exciting."