Former Bangladesh head coach ChandikaHathurusingha is scheduled to arrive in the country on February 20 to start his second stint in the same capacity after being appointed as the successor to Russell Domingo, who tendered a sudden resignation. Hathurusingha, who has signed a two-year contract, will begin his tenure with the home series against England. Cricbuzz looks at few challenges he faces ahead of this second coming.
Hathurusingha's biggest challenge will be to find consistency in Tests and T20Is - an aspect that has eluded Bangladesh cricket. Though Bangladesh have emerged as a strong force in ODIs, their performance in the longest and shortest format have always been a cause of concern. There have been odd encouraging performances in the both the formats, but not enough to be termed as consistent in either.
In Shakib Al Hasan, Hathurusingha has a fine cricket brain to work with and enhance Bangladesh's stature in the two formats. The arrival of pace bowlers like Ebadat Hossain and Khaled Ahmed has giving the Test squad a lift, and there's a need for Hathurusingha to keep them going. There are also two big reasons for the absence of consistency in Tests - the lack of a set opening pair and the knowledge of which batting template suits Bangladesh best. Identifying both early should be high on the coach's agenda. For T20Is, the need at the moment is to identify the best pool of players that can be honed for next year's World Cup, and giving opportunities in the lead up without indulging in too much of chopping and changing.
Last time around, Hathurusigha faced criticism for preparing the kind of pitches at home that suited Bangladesh's strength, even as it earned them memorable victories. Under the Sri Lankan's tutelege, Bangladesh recorded maiden Test wins against England and Australia, but continued to look out of depth when they travelled to venues that had pace and bounce.
Bangladesh took a similar route in T20Is before the 2021 World Cup and got great results against New Zealand and Australia. But at the showpiece event, they failed to secure a single victory in the group stages. So the decision for the head coach will be between having favourable pitches to get going with possible victories or prepare sporting wickets and test the nerve and quality of the players at his disposal.
Hathurusingha's biggest achievement as Bangladesh head coach was to make the ODI side potent, particularly at home and occasionally away. Under him, they made it to the quarterfinal of the 2015 World Cup and semifinal of the 2017 Champions Trophy. The focus, now, expectedly is on how far he can guide them in this year's World Cup in India.
The time is perhaps ripe for the next step in Bangladesh's ODI evolution - the ability to post totals in the range of 350. For all their ODI quality, Bangladesh have struggled to post such high totals. There's perhaps a need to shift the way they approach the game, particularly with the bat in order to stay on par with how far the format has advanced.