Sakib al Hasan is confident to carry on the good form in the upcoming series against New Zealand after joining the practice session of the national team at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Sunday.
Sakib, who had a successful stint in county cricket where he helped his side Worcestershire get promotion to Division One, was holidaying in his hometown Magura after returning from England on September 18.
‘I am confident about doing well against New Zealand as I had a good time in county cricket. If I had not performed well for my county side maybe there could have been reasons to be worried,’ Sakib told reporters.
Sakib, who was in his usual form with ball in county but failed to score any century with the bat, insisted his experience in county, will be help him against the Kiwis, who will play five ODIs against the hosts from October 5-17.
‘I was not batting badly in England, though in the longer version of county competition I should have scored more. I just hope that my experiences of county cricket would be a big help,’ Sakib said.
Skipper Mashrafee bin Murtaza, felt they have a very good chance against the Kiwis and had no complaint about preparation despite having his best all-rounder only on Sunday in the practice.
‘I am happy with the preparation and now it is up to the players to deliver on the given day,’ Mashrafee told reporters.
Mashrafee, however, underlined the importance of pace bowlers coming to the aid of spinners to get their desired result. In every home series the spinners provided Bangladesh some kind of hope only for the opponents to seize the opportunity against the pacers.
‘We have to back up our spinners as for the last three years they have been shouldering maximum burden of our bowling in the home series. The pace bowlers must contribute sufficiently to make us a winning outfit,’ he said.
Mashrafee, who himself will lead the pace attack, however, urged the pacers to stick to the basics and not to experiment with any new technique in the series.
‘It is not the right time to learn new bowling techniques as the time is very limited,’ said Mashrafee.
‘Our new bowling coach is more concerned about sharpening skills to bowl at the right place with bounce and yorker,’ he said.
