The variety in the Bangladesh A team’s pace bowling will give the opposition a run for their money during their tour of England, said skipper Jahirul Islam at Mirpur on Friday.
The selectors included five pace bowlers in Robiul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Al Amin along with seaming all-rounder Ziaur Rahman and Farhad Reza in the tour party considering the English condition where seam bowlers are expected to get some extra advantage.
All 15 players of the squad and the team officials gathered at the BCB Academy for an official photo shoot on Friday. The team is scheduled to leave for England today on a three-week tour to play five one-day matches against the English county teams and three one-dayers against England Lions.
‘Our pace bowling department has a varied attack and that remains one of our key strength,’ Jahirul told reporters ahead of the tour.
‘Every bowler is different from the other. Shiblu [Robiul Islam] is basically a swing bowler while Al Amin has the ability to get some extra bounce,’ said Jahirul.
‘This kind of diversity will always trouble the opponents,’ he added.
The second string Bangladesh side will start their campaign against Hampshire on Aug 6 at Ageas Bowl. They will face Yorkshire on Aug 9 at Headingley Carnegie, Lancashire on Aug 11 at Old Trafford, Nottinghamshire on Aug 14 at Trend Bridge and Worcestershire on Aug 16 at New Road.
Jahirul has every confidence in the squad as 14 cricketers had the experience of playing for the national side, among whom several are very near to the Tigers’ dressing room, either looking to make a comeback or cement their places in the national team.
‘Everyone, apart from Al Amin, has the experience of playing in the national team that indicates the strength of our squad,’ said Jahirul.
‘It is a much stronger squad than the last ‘A’ team that toured West Indies, with everyone having the ability to play for the national side,’ added Jahirul, who was skipper of the Bangladesh A team during that tour in 2012.
‘We had some good practice sessions in the last six weeks. We focused on fitness for the first four weeks and later shifted our focus on skill,’ he said.
‘There were some problems though, like the weather and political instability as there was general strike for a few days. But individually everyone tried to hard improve their skill with the help of the bowling machine and that would help us to get the feel of playing on the bouncy wicket,’ he added.
‘We could not practise on pitches similar to their condition as Gamini [the national curator] could not make the strip ready due to bad weather,’ he said.
‘But adapting to foreign condition is more a personal matter and with a strong mentality you can always do it,’ he added.
According to the skipper, the only concern for the team remains in their fielding as they could not do the drills during the practice sessions but he added they will focus on this area during the practice sessions in England ahead of their campaign.
‘It is right that we could not do fielding practice and it becomes difficult to do well in this department without practice,’ said Zahirul.
‘Even today we had a discussion about it with the coach and we decided that as we had two practice sessions in England we will put emphasis on this department,’ he said.
‘I feel that if we can have two one-hour practice sessions for four days it will help us to recover.’
After playing with the county sides, the team will play three one-day matches against youth England Lions on Aug 20 (Bristol), August 22 and 24 (Taunton).
Bangladesh A team: Jahirul Islam (captain), Naeem Islam (vice-captain), Mohammad Elias, Ziaur Rahman, Anamul Haque, Sohag Gazi, Rubel Hossain, Mominul Hoque, Shamsur Rahman, Marshal Ayub, Robiul Islam, Imrul Kayes, Roqibul Hassan, Farhad Reza, Al-Amin.
-With New Age input
