David Hemp, the newly appointed head coach of the Bangladesh women’s national team, has encouraged his squad to prioritize an aggressive and proactive brand of cricket as they prepare for their first-ever bilateral series on Australian soil. The 55-year-old begins a two-year tenure with the team starting with a three-match ODI series, which kicks off at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane on October 9. They’re number one in ODIs and also in T20s. And what we don’t want is to get back to Bangladesh in a week’s time and say, ‘Oh, I wish we’d played this way, I wish we’d played that way’.
Hemp remains realistic about the challenge posed by the hosts, noting that Australia currently stands as the top-ranked side in both ODI and T20 formats. “We can’t hide away from the fact that we’re playing against the best women’s team in the world,” Hemp stated ahead of Thursday’s opener. His primary goal is to ensure the players leave Australia without lingering regrets about their performance or approach, emphasizing that the team must remain positive in both their technical execution and their mental preparation for every delivery. So the biggest challenge will be getting our heads around that. We need to be positive in how we go about everything that we do and how we not just play the game but also approach the game and how we think about the game.
The tour represents a homecoming of sorts for Hemp, who previously served as the team’s batting coach during the 2025 ICC Women’s ODI World Cup Qualifier in Pakistan and the T20 World Cup Qualifier held in Nepal earlier this year. He believes this prior history with the group has significantly eased his transition back into the setup. “I’m new to the role, but I’ve also had experience with the team before,” he said, adding that the squad has settled in well and engaged in productive discussions regarding their tactical approach. So that transition has been for me a bit easier because I’ve been here before with the group,” he said.
A major focus of the preparation has been adjusting to the unfamiliar conditions of Australian pitches. The coaching staff has noted that these wickets offer significantly more pace and bounce than what the players typically face in domestic settings. Despite this, Hemp praised the team’s adaptability during their training sessions, noting that the four or five days of preparation have been highly effective.
“We’ve been fortunate to have a practice game, and the wickets we’ve been training on have been excellent,” Hemp explained. While acknowledging that these conditions are foreign to his players, he expressed confidence in their ability to meet the challenge, noting that their dedication to adapting their game has been exemplary. The coach maintains that if the team continues this trajectory and approaches the series with the right mindset, they will undoubtedly move forward in a positive direction. But they’ve adjusted really well and really tried to adjust and adapt to those conditions.
