Outgoing Australian batting coach of the GP-BCB Academy Allan Campbell urged the Bangladeshi batsmen to know where their off-stump is while facing the fast bowlers in bouncy wickets.
Campbell will return home today after ending his month-long training camp during which he not only worked with the Academy batsmen and wicketkeepers, but also had a close look at the national batsmen.
‘I have noticed that they [national players] have a tendency of not covering their off-stamp. That might be because of the sub-continent wickets though I can’t comment as I haven’t seen enough of them,’ Campbell told New Age on Sunday.
Campbell saw the same blemish in the Academy batsmen and claimed that he will return happy as they have corrected their faults during the past one month.
‘In the first week when I was here the players just played without covering the off-stamp and most of them nicked in the second slip.
‘We made some pretty strong improvements in the areas of covering the off-stamp.
‘We had a lot of practice to ensure that the batsman gets across and behind the ball while batting against faster bowlers in bouncy wickets,’ he said.
Campbell also found a serious a problem in running between the wickets of both national and academy batsmen, which he said need to be improved immediately.
‘I think it is one area that needs continual improvement.
‘Calling, backing up at the non-strikers end, running the first run first, communication between the batsmen in order to complete the running between the wickets are always important,’ he said.
‘It’s a technical issue as well as tactical too because technically you can teach them how to call but when you go out there it is more tactical than technical.
‘I saw it when Bangladesh team were in Australia and the commentators also pointed it out.’
Campbell, the former High Performance Manager of Cricket New South Wales, was very impressed with some of the academy batsmen and hoped some of them will find a place in the national team very soon.
He was particularly impressed by Alahuddin Babu, who led the academy side against the national team in the two-day warm-up match earlier this week.
Known as a fast bowling all-rounder, Babu was sent to bat at number four and repaid the faith with 63 off 95 balls.
‘I think there are two to three players in the squad who could be very shortly seen with the national players,’ said Campbell.
‘Alauddin Babu is just one of them. We brought him out of his comfort zone and he batted beautifully at number four, though when I came here he was basically a fast bowler and used bat at number eight,’ said the Australian.
‘That is needed, to try and see whether he can be an all-rounder,’ he said.
-With New Age input
