Bangladesh coach lavishes special praise to his current squad ahead of the opening test against India at Chennai.
Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusinghe expects the senior players to shoulder most of the responsibility this series.
Although they’ve only won eight of 67 matches on tour, four of them have come since 2021. And the most recent two were the stuff of legend.
“The win in Pakistan certainly gives us a lot of confidence coming into this series.” “Not because of the outcome of the series. The way we played that series. The way we handled certain situations. We were behind the game in both Test matches and then how we come back and then the people who contribute at different times give us a lot of belief for this series.”
The way Bangladesh’s youthful players are excelling is largely responsible for the positive atmosphere there, but their veterans are still keeping up with the younger players.
“Shakib [has] always played a huge part in Bangladesh cricket whenever he is available and playing well, Hathurusinghe said.
“I mean obviously he gives us the luxury to balance the team the way we want. Whether we want to play extra bowlers or extra batsmen because of his all-round capabilities. So he gives that adaptability as well as a huge experience.
“He is probably one of the longest international players going around and is in good shape. So he brings a lot into the team, not only his skill set but otherwise as well.”
“And, Miraz, I would say he is the most improved Bangladesh cricketer for the last five to six years. He is ready to take over whenever Shakib moves out. I think he has developed his batting and obviously his bowling has always been, his strength, his No.1. Now I think he has improved his batting as well and on the field, he is a gun fielder.”
Any away team’s ability to handle R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will determine how successful they are. Mushfiqur, who usually made rigorous preparations in Chennai, will be the man Bangladesh is counting on. He was practicing different sweeps against his training partner’s offspin and left-arm spinning net bowlers.
“I think Mushfiq actually mentioned to me his record on the way to India in the flight. He said, I average 55 coach, you forget about that,” Hathurusinghe said. “He is a phenomenal player and for a long time the way he prepared, I haven’t seen anyone prepare that much detail-wise. So the one I haven’t seen is probably Sachin Tendulkar…something like that. Close to all the reports that I have read about him, Mushfiq is like that. He is just a professional, a thorough professional when it comes to cricket.”
Bangladesh has lost all three of its Test matches in India (two by an innings). Hathurusinghe is optimistic that this time around they will pose a more formidable foe.
“I think this is probably the most well-rounded team that Bangladesh has produced in my previous time and this time,” he said. “We’re covering a lot of bases, we’ve got good fast bowlers, we’ve got a really experienced spin attack and then the batting, we actually have good depth because of two reasons.”
“One is that two of our spinners [Shakib and Mehidy] are genuine batters who got Test hundreds. And then two of our wicketkeepers [Litton Das and Mushfiqur] are our main batters. So our balance of the team in this series is really, really good and that gives us actually a lot more confidence that we can be competitive in this series.”