2024-03-28 03:16:32
Minhajul Abedin Nannu and Habibul Bashar Suman, while national team selectors, decided that grass should be placed on every wicket in the National Cricket League and Bangladesh Cricket League tournaments. This is their decision to give the pace bowlers ideal wickets to bring momentum to the pace bowling. Also, the curators were given the demand for grass wickets so that the top order batsmen could test and not score runs easily.
Like talk like action. In the last few years, two major first-class cricket tournaments in the country, the National Cricket League and the Bangladesh Cricket League, have kept grass wickets. Not only with instructions, they started visiting the venues before the match to see the wickets. He intervened in everything from grass cutting, maintenance. Bogra, Sylhet, Chittagong and Rajshahi wickets are regularly hosting first class tournaments on grass wickets. The selectors got quick results.
They saw the progress of the pacers and the weakness of the batsmen. How is that? A selector said on the phone on Tuesday, “Earlier, the pacers’ job was to make the ball old. Then the spinners came and bowled continuously. Now in the last few years the pacers have been regularly taking early wickets. It is becoming difficult for the batsmen to play.’
The weakness of the batsmen with the new ball comes in front of everyone. As happened in the test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Sylhet. The top order batsmen of both teams have suffered with the new ball. Not only the top order but also the middle order performance was not bright. This test was played with kookaburra ball. The brilliance of this ball is sustained up to 20 overs. The ball becomes softer as it ages. The sim keeps getting damaged. Then the task becomes easier for the batsmen. Both the teams did not do well in the difficult times of the new ball. Habibul Bashar, the former selector of the national team, wanted to bring forward that aspect.
Habibul feels that disaster has happened because the players could not adjust themselves with the behavior of the wicket, ‘What we have missed in this match is the early batting in both innings. Domestic cricket is played on this wicket on which the wicket is played. First class cricket is played on this wicket. There too we have seen that the adaptation of the batsmen has not come so far. Most of the fast class is played there below 250 or 200. The ball swings by simulating. Batsmen struggle.’
He finds similarities between opening batting in domestic cricket and Sylhet’s batting, ‘What I saw there (domestic cricket) and in the Sylhet Test is that the most important thing is early batting. Batting becomes relatively easy after 20 overs. I also saw the batting time of both teams. The batting of the Sri Lankan team is also the same. Suffered in the beginning. Later recovered. Our problem was a lot of early wickets. Couldn’t recover later.’
The former Test captain also told the way to improve from this disaster, ‘The improvement that needs to be done is adaptation with the wicket. Changing your game with the wicket. If you drive to such a wicket, you will be out. If set, runs become easier if the ball is a bit old. I made this mistake in the first and second innings. You have to improve according to the situation. Increasing your adaptability with the wicket.’
He also advised to increase focus on domestic cricket and play whenever he gets a chance, ‘Moominul Haque doesn’t get a chance to play much in the other two formats. So his participation in first class cricket is high. But Muminul is used to playing on this kind of wicket. None of them are behind in skills. Those who play regularly in batting order 1-5 should play these competitions in domestic cricket. This match should be played if given the chance if one really wants to improve.’