Bangladeshi spinners did well in the ongoing Test series against Pakistan by following the blueprint of their last Sri Lanka tour in 2021 as well. Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib al Hasan picked up seven wickets between them, on the fifth day in the two-match Test series opener against Pakistan at Rawalpindi, to help the side register their maiden Test win against their Asian neighbours.
However, Sohel Islam, who is currently the head coach of the Bangladesh Tigers programme, was travelling with the touring squad as the spin coach and they decided to focus on remaining patient more than anything else.
“I think the spinners are bowling with a different mind-set now when they are playing abroad compared to how we bowled before in foreign conditions and now you will notice that our spinners can bowl for extended periods even when the pitch doesn’t offer much support,” said Sohel on Wednesday.
“When we last toured Sri Lanka (2021), I was the spin bowling coach. As you know, their wickets aren’t very spin-friendly. If you play regularly on pitches that are suitable for a spinner which is the case in our country you’ll naturally adopt an aggressive mindset considering you are picking a wicket by bowling 5-7 overs,” he said.
“In the past, when we took that aggressive mindset abroad-whether it was South Africa, Australia, or Sri Lanka-we would often become mentally unsettled after bowling 5-6 overs without taking a wicket and get puzzled and suddenly a sense of urgency grows as we start questioning ourselves why the wickets weren’t coming,” he continued.
“During that series (against Sri Lanka) we had to shift away from that aggressive mindset and we decided that even if we didn’t get any wickets we would keep bowling throughout the day in the right areas without trying to force anything. Look at the last Test (against Pakistan), you saw that in the first innings when the pitch wasn’t offering much assistance, we focused on maintaining accuracy rather than rushing,” he said.
He further added, “Despite the intense heat we knew that by the fourth or fifth day the pitch would begin to crack and opportunities would arise. The key is to be patient and wait for the game to turn in your favor. As a spin bowling unit you need to wait for that moment when you can start exploiting the condition. Bowlers must understand how to bowl when the advantage isn’t with them and wait for the right moment to bring the tricks out of their sleeves and I am happy that we did exactly that against Pakistan in the opening Test.”
However, Sohel further added that he was not surprised to see Shakib al Hasan do well with the ball despite not playing Test cricket quite regularly in the recent past as well.
“I don’t think he is affected by outside noise and it has been the case for a long time now if you closely follow his career and so his performance was not surprising at all( despite being surrounded by recent controversy). I believe his bowling is very natural. He can bowl effortlessly if he wants to. If you ask him to bowl all day, he can do it. But it depends on whether he wants to or not. He has an extraordinary ability to read batters. He can quickly figure out what type of delivery to bowl to a particular batsman or what approach to take based on the pitch conditions,” he again shared.
