As Bangladesh prepares to take on Pakistan in their ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 opener in Colombo, skipper Nigar Sultana Joty has thrown her weight behind her team’s growing belief and readiness to make a mark on the global stage.
A natural leader, Joty was entrusted with the captaincy across formats in 2021, and since then has spearheaded Bangladesh through landmark phases, including their maiden appearance at the 2022 ODI World Cup and last year’s T20 World Cup.
Under her leadership, the side has shed its underdog tag, scripting historic wins such as the group-stage triumph over Pakistan in the 2022 World Cup and pushing higher-ranked teams like India, South Africa, and West Indies in tightly fought contests.
Though her ODI numbers have been modest, Joty’s form has shown encouraging signs of maturity. At the 2025 World Cup Qualifier, she struck her maiden century against Thailand and finished as the third-highest run-scorer of the tournament, further underlining her steady progress with the bat.
In the press conference, when asked about Bangladesh’s journey since qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, she reflected, “First of all, a lot changes after that, so I think it’s a new day, it will be a good opportunity for the team to get a good start, definitely it’s an opener for us, it will set up a good tone for the whole tournament, give us more confidence to play for the rest of the games.”
Bangladesh will open their campaign against Pakistan, a side they know well from qualifiers and bilateral series. Joty acknowledged the familiarity between the two teams sharing, “It is a good thing to play against Pakistan because we have played together for a long time and we know each other and we just played them against in qualifiers and we played bilateral series as well, so it could be a good contest.”
While Pakistan’s batting line-up has impressed in recent outings, Joty stressed on Bangladesh sticking to their basics, “They are playing really well, I think their batting unit have been spot on in each and every game against South Africa, especially Sidra (Amin), Muneeba (Ali) even in the qualifiers they are in a very good touch. They played in their home ground but scored a lot of runs.
“I guess we want to keep our game plan very simple, because a particular day is very important… Both the teams want to win tomorrow, to set the tone for the tournament, we hope to do less mistakes tomorrow and hope we get a good match.”
For Bangladesh, the long-standing concern has been their batting depth. Their bowlers have often kept them in contests, but converting chances into wins has demanded stronger contributions with the bat. Joty admitted the team has put special emphasis on this area in recent months, “For a long time period batting was our main concern because our bowlers have been spot on edge, fielders also doing very well.
“We talked about it that we do have potential that why aren’t we able to put hundred percent in our game or why are we settling down or go for big runs so then we worked on our batting unit too much and we promised ourselves that this is a good opportunity for us what we have been prepared for and how we qualified in the last time also it was very hectic. But if we have to win, we have to put some runs on the scoreboard.”
Reflecting on the last 12 months since the T20 World Cup, Joty highlighted the team’s mental conditioning as a key improvement. “I think specially we really work hard on our mental start, we all know that we have good potential to win games here, but the thing is we just need to believe. We kept playing well but somehow, we couldn’t manage to win any games, we played very crucial games, close matches but somehow, we didn’t win, so we were working on how to win against good teams.
“For a few months after the qualifiers we were preparing ourselves very well and we worked so hard and working on our physical health, so I think it will depend on how the players actually act tomorrow and next games also.”
Bangladesh have also injected youth into their squad, with several players making strong impressions in domestic and practice games. Joty praised their character, “It’s actually how we pick them, U19 players they actually proven a lot, playing well in the domestic and we tested them in the practice matches on how they act and perform for the team.
“They are actually very young but very matured enough because they have shown their character in the U19 and domestic side. In our last game, we put Sumaiya Akter against Sri Lanka, she owned that game and it motivated our team very well. They tried to contribute for the team, and it was a great thing.”
Bangladesh’s build-up to the tournament faced a scare after head coach Sarwar Imran suffered a minor stroke in Colombo. While the news worried fans, Joty reassured that he is recovering well, “He’s absolutely fine now, we met him yesterday after the practice, we were talking, so he is fine.”
As Bangladesh steps onto the field, Joty’s leadership, marked by calmness, resilience, and belief, will once again be central. With her batting evolving and the team’s determination to correct past shortcomings, the Tigresses are eager to set the right tone against Pakistan and establish themselves as genuine contenders in the 2025 World Cup.
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