Bangladesh plans ‘series by series’ to thrive in Test cricket

DHAKA —Bangladesh is expected chose to stick to some small plan as part of their strategy to thrive in the Test cricket, a format in which they often find them in vulnerable state.

The Tigers basically want to plan for any specific series rather than adopting a long term plan, something that most of the cricketing nation does.

But Bangladesh is more comfortable in series by series plan, said Test skipper Mominul Haque as be believes this gives the players a chance to stick to one specific thing.

Bangladesh were due to play eight more Test matches in this year, which was postponed eventually due to the outbreak of Covid-19 worldwide.

“We haven’t any long terms plan rather we had planned series by series, which we think give our players to stick one thing at the same time,” Mominul told the BSS.

“Long term plan gives you the freedom to think about entire thing. But still we prefer to go on with some small and specific plan, which suits our culture.

We know we are not good at Test cricket but at the same time we know we have the potential to do well. So it’s better to go series by series,” he added.

Mominul, considered as Test specialist, was appointed Bangladesh’s Test captain after Shakib Al Hasan was banned from the cricket by ICC due to his failure to report corrupt approaches of bookies.

The beginning of Mominul era was not happier one as he tasted three consecutive innings defeat against subcontinent rivals India and Pakistan. But Bangladesh got back to the groove with bang, crushing Zimbabwe in a solitary home Test in last February.

“Victory against Zimbabwe was very necessary to regain the confidence that was hampered by the defeat against India and Pakistan,” Mominul said, adding that crushing defeat against India and Pakistan was a blessing in disguise.

“Yes I had a bad start to my captaincy career but I thinks it’s a blessing in disguise. At the first chance, I have the opportunity to experience what we lacked and where there were loopholes,” he said.

“We had worked hard after those heavy defeats. We sorted out our shortcomings and worked on to fix it. And we fixed it well and we did well against Zimbabwe.

This is a good sign. We were desperately looking for the last Test against Pakistan because we needed to know whether we found everything right,” Mominul remarked.

Mominul was disappointed that so many Test matches were postponed due to the Covid-19 but is hopeful that ICC definitely will find a way to give Bangladesh all those matches.

“It’s really disappointing but what can we do? It is out of control. I hope this virus will go away very soon and we’ll return to cricket ground. Bangladesh hardly got such a huge number Tests in one calendar year.

I hope ICC will find a way to give us all of those Test matches because those were all under ICC Test Championship. I know it’s tough to find out a slot in tight schedule but still I am hopeful,” the captain concluded.BSS