David Hemp backs Najmul Shanto to come good with the bat ahead of the much-awaited test series vs India next week.
David Hemp, Bangladesh’s batting coach has put his weight behind skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto to have a good series with the bat.
Shanto is currently going through something of a lean run with the bat in Test cricket. He only scored 32 runs in the 2-test-series against Sri Lanka. He was not much better in Pakistan either, with a return of 58 runs in 3 innings.
The recurring theme for his loss in form is said to be the burden of all-format captaincy. Hemp, however, vehemently rejected that notion.
“The captaincy of any team, let alone an international team, is obviously difficult. So it’s not just worrying about your own game. You’re all over the place. So, that’s a huge challenge with captaincy, at any level, but especially international level. So, that is something he’s still working and still getting used to”, Hemp said.
“I thought his approach in the last Test (against Pakistan) was excellent. Look, I don’t personally think so (captaincy affecting his game). He’s training well. He’s trying to improve his game,” he said.
“He is just one innings away. I think we saw glimpses of what he can do. It’s just now doing it over a longer period of time,” he said.
Hemp has expressed satisfaction with the overall performance of the batting unit in the recent test matches. He credited their resilience and clarity in their decision-making.
“We discussed that we felt we could have been better building on from the last series. So I guess from our point of view, it was important that we wanted it. We wanted the Pakistani seam Bowlers to come back to bowl spells – three spells, four spells, five spells.
“So we had that purpose around constructing our innings so that we weren’t losing back-to-back wickets,” he said.