Star of the moment Sohag Gazi has set his eyes on becoming the highest wicket-taker in the ongoing Bangladesh-New Zealand Test series after a record-shattering drawn first Test in Chittagong.
Sohag hit the headlines when he became the first cricketer in the history of Test cricket to score a century and claim a hat-trick in the same Test before Bangladesh earned a respectable draw at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
‘In the second match my aim will be to maintain this streak,’ Sohag told reporters ahead of the second Test beginning on Monday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. ‘I don’t know if I will break a record again or not, but I am thinking about taking a five-for again.’
Sohag took eight wickets in the first Test including 6-77 in the second innings including a hat-trick which made him the second Bangladeshi bowler to hit a hundred and take a five-for in the same Test after the mercurial Sakib al Hasan.
With injury forcing Sakib to turn into Bangladesh’s ‘second best spinner’, Sohag is expected to lead the Tigers’ bowling attack on a more spin-friendly Sher-e-Bangla pitch in their pursuit of a first Test win at home against a major side.
‘Actually, there is nothing different to do. The manner in which I bowled in the last match, I will try to bowl in a similar way,’ said Sohag, ‘The little mistakes that I did in the previous game…I will work on them.’
‘Actually, the thing is I don’t know even myself. After getting a wicket or two, I tend to get three to four more wickets. This is a good thing for me,’ said Sohag.
The second Test will be his return to the venue where he made an extraordinary debut against the West Indies last year.
He opened the bowling for Bangladesh, a rare job for a spinner in a Test match and it was even rarer for a debutant. Chris Gayle welcomed him with a six off the very first delivery, the first six in the first ball of a match in the history of Test cricket which could have easily shattered his morale.
Gayle took 18 runs off the off-spinner’s first over much to his dismay, but Sohag was a tough nut to crack. He soon came back to dismiss Gayle in his third over and finished the game with nine wickets on his fairytale debut.
Who would have known he will have more fascinating a story than the debut Test on his second coming to Sher-e-Bangla?
Sohag, therefore, decided not to lose his sleep by thinking about the wicket or any other factor ahead of the series deciding Test.
‘Till now the coach or the captain does not know much about the wicket,’ said the emerging all-rounder. ‘We haven’t done much work. But no matter what the wicket is, we need to play.
‘Right now my main target is to become the highest wicket-taker of this series,’ he said.
-With New Age input
