Joty remains upbeat despite warm-up defeats

Bangladesh will head into their opening match of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup on the back of consecutive defeats in the warm-up fixtures, but captain Nigar Sultana Joty believes there were enough positives for her side to take confidence from ahead of the tournament.

The Bangladesh skipper highlighted the performances of young opener Juairiya Ferdous and spinner Sanjida Akter Meghla, expressing optimism that the team will be better prepared when the tournament gets underway.

"We played two practice games and I think we learned a lot from them," Joty said.

"We really wanted to take all the positive things into our first game and I think we still have some time to prepare ourselves.

"We'll discuss the areas we need to improve and work on them in practice. We'll take the good things from those matches and look forward to the first game."

Joty believes Ferdous could emerge as a key player for Bangladesh during the tournament.

The 20-year-old opener, who made her senior international debut earlier this year, has already shown signs of becoming a long-term fixture at the top of Bangladesh's batting order.

Ferdous struck a brisk 26 off 15 balls against defending champions New Zealand in a warm-up match in Loughborough on Saturday before following it up with an impressive 50 from 38 deliveries against Ireland at the same venue on Tuesday.

Her form comes as a timely boost for Bangladesh ahead of their tournament opener against the Netherlands on Sunday, with Joty backing the youngster to continue her good run.

"She is going to be very important for us because she is in very good touch," Joty said following Bangladesh's 11-run defeat to Ireland in their final warm-up match.

"She's very young and capable of hitting boundaries during the Powerplay as well as afterwards.

"We're looking forward to seeing her play the same way for us in the tournament."