Clicky
Sports, Cricket

Nurul hopes to lock finisher’s role for Bangladesh


Bangladeshpost
Published : 24 Jun 2021 08:15 PM | Updated : 24 Jun 2021 08:15 PM

ESPNCricinfo

The Bangladesh selectors and team management are hoping that Nurul Hasan can reprise his match-winning knocks from this month’s Dhaka Premier League T20s, most of which came at a high strike rate that bailed out his side Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club. It is a situation Bangladesh have often found themselves in when it comes to ODIs and T20Is: someone at No. 6 or 7 unable to provide the final flourish without the help of a senior batter at the other end.

“When I was dropped from the national team after the West Indies tour [in 2018] - to be honest with you - it played on my mind constantly for the first few months,” Hasan told ESPNcricinfo. 

“But I soon realised that selection was never in my control, and feeling bad about it would affect whatever cricket I was going to play from that point onwards. I no longer bother about these things. Now I am more worried about whether I am working hard enough, and [am] focused enough.”

Hasan’s Test inclusion for the upcoming solitary Test in Zimbabwe is an overcorrection by the selectors who had poorly handled his axing in 2018. But for the white-ball squads, he is the first in line among Bangladesh batters to have worked hard on the specific role of being a limited-overs finisher and he has also done well at it. 

It has, however, been a difficult road for Hasan, who said it took him a bit of time to get over being dropped from the Test side.

“It is a difficult phase, and a sort of time when frustration sets in very easily,” he said. 

“But the senior players have supported me. I spoke a lot to Mushfiq [Mushfiqur Rahim] bhai in Sri Lanka this April. He told me about his training methods and lifestyle. Riyadh [Mahmudullah] bhai [also] checks up on me from time to time. They have really kept me going.”