Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha hoped that his batting group will enjoy the Pakistan pitches, which generally tend to favour the batters.
Batting has been a cause of concern for Bangladesh for a long time as it failed to come up with the terms on many occasions.
Hathurusingha admitted that playing in result-oriented wicket back home was key in Bangladesh batters’ failure as a batting group.
“Batting has been a concern for a while, but not for one reason. We play on result oriented wickets back home. Sometimes 250 is a winning score in those pitches. Obviously when you play on these pitches, the batters have a tough time,” he told the reporters in Rawalpindi, the venue of Bangladesh’s first Test against Pakistan.
“I hope the pitches in Pakistan generally favour batting. It is a good contest between bat and ball. We will show better results on these pitches.”
Pakistan which had already announced the first XI for the opening Test didn’t keep any spinner in the squad. It’s the first time in 28 years that they will go into any match without any spinner.
Their strategy suggested that the pitch might be fast-bowling favourable.
However, Hathurusingha was unfazed by it, saying that they have also developed a good fast bowling attack, which can test Pakistan batters.
“The Pindi pitch looks more favourable for fast bowling and batting. They also didn’t pick any spinners. Lately, we have developed a lot of good fast bowlers in our rank as well. If the condition favours, they will do well. Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz are two world-class allrounders. We have all our bases covered for whatever they throw at us,” he said.
“We expect the Pakistan wickets to be different. We picked spinners on merit. Not due to conditions. We want to thank the PCB for hosting the Bangladesh A team before us. They are just 15 minutes away. Some of the fast bowlers are playing there, and we have five in the Test squad.”
The coach believes Shakib Al Hasan, who has eye-problem of late, can contribute in batting also with his bowling.
“He is actually batting well. He has looked fitter. He has done some eye testing as well. He is saying that it helped him with the problem he had.”