Clicky
Sports, Cricket

Taijul keeping his focus on hard work despite outside noise


Published : 08 May 2023 07:37 PM

Taijul Islam is going through a lot since his inclusion in the ODI serier against England at home, earlier this year, ahead of Nasum Ahmed, who seemed to be one of the front-runners to seal a spot in the 50-over format squad as the second left-arm spinner alongside Shakib al Hasan.

The left-arm spinner's return for the England series, after being overlooked in the India series, raised quite a few eyebrows and critics pointed their finger at ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal.

"It's true Shakib and Nasum are quite similar in their mindset and bowling approach with an eye on containing runs while Taijul is an orthodox left-arm spinner who tends to bowl with some flight and has the tendency to go for wickets," Habibul Bashar, member of Bangladesh selection panel, told Cricbuzz.

"Taijul purchases the wicket while Nasum is more accurate and gives fewer runs and that is the biggest difference between them. They are two different kind of bowlers and we are playing them alternatively to see who fits in our squad considering we need to make a decision whether we need to go with an aggressive bowler like Taijul or someone who can stop the flows of the runs like Nasum," he added.

Taijul, who began his ODI career with a hat-trick on debut against Zimbabwe in 2014, hardly managed to excel in both formats equally and at one point it looked he is destined to be Test specialist.