Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo believes that his players’ previous experience of playing against Afghanistan spinners in the domestic circuit would give them the edge even though the visitors are licking their lips in prospect of getting a turning wicket in the one-off Test, reports BSS.
Afghanistan spinners remain the regular visitor in Bangladesh as they played the tournaments like Dhaka Premier League (DPL), Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) here in every year. So the Bangladesh batsmen have the first-hand experience of playing against them in different point of their career.
According to Domingo, this is what will be the edge for Bangladesh and therefore they won’t feel any pressure to deal with them in the lone Test, starting on Thursday at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) in Chattogram.
“The big plus point is that quite a lot of our players played against them in some T20 league like BPL and other leagues around the world,” Domingo told the reporters on Tuesday at the ZACS.
“They (Afghanistan) have got some match winner like Nabi, Rashid Khan and they are fantastic bowler in their own right. We make sure we respect them while score some runs against them too and we have to impose pressure on their best bowlers. We have prepared well in the last two weeks.”
But still Afghanistan spinners will be threatening even though they are almost fresher in longer version format, Domingo said.
“They will be very threatening. We see in the shorter format how dangerous they can be. Look this is a different format and it is no one-day match but they will definitely be threatening for us.”
Afghanistan spinners, especially Rashid Khan tormented Bangladesh in ODI and T20 format while new spin sensation Zahir Khan tore apart BCB XI in a practice match, claiming 5-24.
As this is a wake-up call ahead of the Test, Domingo said they tried to decode Zahir Khan’s bowling by watching his video footage.
“We saw the footage of Zahir Khan’s bowling in yesterday’s (warm-up) match. Moreover lot of guys played against him in BPL.”
Domingo also pointed out the fact that the Afghans would be keen to spring a surprise because of having familiar weather condition as Bangladesh.
“They have just started their Test journey and they will be desperate to win. They will feel the condition here will help them. If they would have played in England, Australia or New Zealand they might get the condition tougher for them. But here they will be very confident of springing a surprise,” he added.
However Domingo further said Bangladesh won’t feel complacent despite the fact that the Afghanistan is fresher in Test circuit.
“There is no way to feel complacent in International cricket. We have to play really hard cricket to win against them,” he concluded.
On his first assignment as Bangladesh head coach, Russell Domingo seeks a winning start as his charges.
“Absolutely, I want [a winning start]. Nobody plays to lose it. It would be really great to start with a victory,” Doming said here on Tuesday before Bangladesh’s practice session at the ZACS.
Domingo’s last two predecessors, Chandika Hathurusingha and Steve Rhodes started with crushing defeat as for both of them the first assignment was an away Test series in West Indies. In both cases, Bangladesh was whitewashed.
Domingo said if Bangladesh players could maintain the process right, it would be easier for them to win the game.
“We have to focus on our process. We have focus on playing hard cricket with lot of patience. We need to bowling in partnership against Afghanistan. If we can do that, the result will go our way,” he believes.