'Be humble': batting coach Ashraful wants Bangladesh to stay grounded

While Bangladesh erupted on Sunday after their cricket team’s historic Test win against Australia at Darwin, members of the squad seem to have taken it in their stride with great equanimity. Deep down, they know that the job is only half done and want to build on it in the second and final Test which starts at South Mackay on Saturday.

‘’Be humble,’’ was the only word of advice from Mohammad Ashraful, former Bangladesh captain and one of their star batters who had been their batting coach since last December. Now 42, Ashraful has seen enough ups and downs in his country’s cricket to know that a high as this one can sometimes lead to a fall and feels that the target before Nazmul Hussain Shanto’s men should now be to close out the series 2-0.

Speaking to National Herald over phone a day after what’s being hailed as the country’s biggest moment in the game, Ashraful said: ‘’We had been in number four position in ICC Test rankings before this series, thanks to some decent cricket in this format in recent times. We had won five of the last six matches — against Ireland in seaming conditions, Pakistan before losing against Zimbabwe and then Darwin. If we can actually win this series, then we can certainly dream of being a part of the World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval next year.’’

It’s been nearly 10 months that Ashraful, who had played a lot of cricket with some of senior pros of this team, been a part of the set-up headed by the West Indian journeyman coach Phil Simmons. The giant former allrounder, a T20 World Cup winning coach for the Caribbeans in 2016 in India, had been a perfect example of been-there-and-done-that in a career spanning over 20 years — handling teams with different mindset and conditions like Zimbabwe, Ireland, two stints with West Indies, Afghanistan and now Bangladesh.

‘’A lot of credit behind the Darwin win goes to Phil (Simmons) and captain Shanto in terms of bringing the self belief. Shanto is a rare breed who has a lot of time for Test cricket and together, we have been able to kickstart a process which is thankfully yielding results. A rare feature of our current team which doesn’t get talked about is the wealth of experience at our disposal — someone like Mushfiqur Rahim has played 104 Tests, Mominul Haq (79), Mehidy Hasan Miraz (57), Liton Das (55) while Shanto has played 43. This means they are equipped to play the situations better,’’ Ashraful said.

Interestingly, a 19-year-old Ashraful was part of the Bangladesh squad back in 2003 when they played at the same venue of Marrara Oval in Darwin and succumbed to an innings defeat. ‘’Since I had some experience of playing in the drop-in pitch at Darwin or the one in Auckland in 2008 (he scored a 70 off 54 balls), I could pass on some useful inputs on batting on these surfaces. The quicker one bowls, it becomes easier to hit as the ball doesn’t skid off the surface and this is what I told the likes of Tanzid (Hasan) or Shadman (Islam),’’ he revealed.

While Bangladesh had been able to produce quality batters and spinners from time to time, lack of adequate pace bowling resources had often come in the way of them making dents against the top drawer rooms in Tests. However, the current team seems to have overcome the drawback as despite an injury lay-off to Nahid Rana — their quickest bowler — they tested the Australian line-up with young Mahmud Hasan wrecking havoc, experienced Taskin Ahmed and Ebadot Hussain.

Offering a peek into the growth of their fast bowling reserves, Ashraful thanked the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for drawing up a blueprint for more than a decade now. ‘’BCB started quality control from 2013 so that domestic matches are played on green tops rather than rank turners. Mominul Haq, a former Test captain, also stressed on the need of a potent pace attack around 2016 if we wanted to take 20 wickets in a game. Thankfully, it’s all come together but it’s extremely important to keep up the momentum,’’ he signed off.