Shakib Al Hasan seeks to repair batting issues after ‘actuality examine’ forward of World Cup

Sep 09, 2023 at 9:26 PM
Shakib Al Hasan seeks to repair batting issues after ‘actuality examine’ forward of World Cup

Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan mentioned that accidents and techniques compelled them to tinker with their taking part in XIs within the Asia Cup, and that they weren’t experimenting only for the sake of it. They have been anticipated to check out a couple of combos forward of the World Cup subsequent month, nevertheless it all went awry as Bangladesh now stare at an exit from the Super Four stage of the event after two defeats in as many video games – this time a 21-run loss towards Sri Lanka in Colombo.

Shakib mentioned they despatched Mehidy Hasan Miraz to open towards Afghanistan and Sri Lanka primarily due to his potential to deal with thriller spinners, a transfer which was justified after Mehidy struck his second ODI hundred towards Afghanistan. However, Shakib felt that Mehidy may give the staff some steadiness batting moderately at No. 7, provided that Bangladesh are scuffling with an extended tail.

“We thought that Miraz was a better option [as an opener] against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. He has always handled mystery spinners like Mujeeb and Theekshana well. That was the reason [why he opened]. It was a well-thought out decision. The openers added 50 runs [against Sri Lanka], but we needed an 80 or 90 opening stand. Then it would have been a different sort of game.

“At this second, I really feel that he has a job to play within the high order. He is a strong batsman with a superb method. Against specific groups he can do rather well. It was not a fluke that he scored the hundred; it may possibly’t be. A tailender cannot rating 100 towards among the best spin assaults on the planet. I believe he has a job to play [with the bat], but when he bats at No. 7, it provides us extra depth. The youthful guys can get uncovered in a event like this.”

Bangladesh’s long tail is becoming a headache this year, especially after they started to prefer bowling cover to a long batting line-up. Traditionally, Bangladesh have gone the latter, but under both Tamim Iqbal and Shakib, they have opted for, in the words of Shakib, the “aggressive” option. However, Shakib said that having a long tail hasn’t curbed his middle order’s inclination towards playing their shots.

“The dressing room does not really feel reluctant to play our photographs as a result of lengthy tail. We nonetheless need to be optimistic.” he said. “We nonetheless need to play the correct photographs on the proper time. We need to imagine in our high seven, who ought to win you 90% of the matches with the bat. If we put one other batter, it is going to be [based on] horses for programs. Someone like Nasum Ahmed gave 31 runs in ten overs [against Sri Lanka]. If we did not play him, we might have most likely given away 30 extra runs, which the No. 8 batter would then have to attain.

“There’s a lot of ifs and buts after the game. But before the game, how you discuss and want to play is more important. I think we took the aggressive decision to play with six bowlers so that we could bowl them out for 220-230. But they got away at the start. They survived. They were lucky. There were a couple of missed chances. Otherwise things could have been different.”

“It is not that he is getting out quickly. If a batter can make 20, he has the ability to score an eighty or a hundred”

Shakib is not fully disillusioned with opener Mohammad Naim

But regardless of having an extended tail and a few absences within the batting line-up, Shakib defended taking part in opener Mohammad Naim in all 4 matches regardless of him not changing begins of 16, 28, 20 and 21 into respectable contributions.

“We haven’t done a lot of experiment,” Shakib mentioned. “Naim is playing his fourth match [in the tournament]. We had a few injuries after the first game, but Litton [Das] came [back] into the picture. Naim got starts in four games. It is not that he is getting out quickly. I think it is more about mentality than skill. If a batter can make 20, he has the ability to score an eighty or a hundred.

“We needed to be constant [with Naim’s selection]. We did not need to put somebody in and throw him out after two video games. He had an honest run. He performed 4 video games in a row. He obtained begins in all of the video games. The disappointing facet is that he did not ship when he ought to have performed a giant knock. He did not get out first or second ball too. I’m not saying he made a variety of contributions – he performed the brand new ball rather well – however once we wanted, he could not kick on.”

However, Shakib admitted that they have to put their deteriorating batting under the scanner, especially ahead of the World Cup where they have historically underperformed.

“We have not been batting properly for fairly a while. It is a matter of concern,” he said. “We have to repair these issues. I personally really feel that we actually wanted this actuality examine earlier than the World Cup. We often do properly in bilateral sequence. You can see our outcomes from 2015 to 2019 to 2023. Our massive exams are in these massive tournaments the place we now have by no means achieved something extraordinary.

“We have three matches in the 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 World Cups. You won’t find a lot of difference in these performances. We have usually failed after we got the reality check. We are a promising team that’s doing well on and off. We lost the last two home series against England and Afghanistan. Our batting [has] deteriorated in the last six months. It is going downwards, so we have to rectify quickly.”

But the one factor that also introduced “relief” to the Bangladesh captain was the younger batter Towhid Hridoy‘s type since making his worldwide debut earlier this yr. Hridoy struck 82 within the run chase towards Sri Lanka, having added 72 for the fifth wicket with Mushfiqur Rahim after they have been 83 for 4 in pursuit of 258.

“It is a relief. He batted really well,” Shakib mentioned. “Playing in the LPL must have given him a lot of confidence. He has faced all these bowlers. I am very happy with the way he batted. It is still a long way to go. A big tournament is coming. I hope he continues his form.”

Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84