Heath Streak, the new fast bowling coach of Bangladesh worked with the national team for the first time yesterday. In his first day at the office at the Sher-e-Bangla National stadium, the big Zimbabwean tried to teach the two new young fast bowlers Al Amin and Taskin Ahmed how to bowl in the death overs with variations to keep batsmen guessing.
“It was different as we bowled one over each in the nets under a virtual match situation created by his strict instruction to not bowl any no balls as if we were practicing bowling in the death overs. Overall, I enjoyed it,” said Taskin.
Taskin further revealed that there was nothing different compared to the other bowling coaches as the basic things were there at the practice session, “It was nothing different but he asked to vary the length according to the pitch and the pitch was slow. So I tried to bowl slower, bouncers and tried to mix them up,” he said.
On the other hand, the other young fast bowler Al Amin said that Streak asked him to straighten his hand during the delivery of the ball as his hand bends at the crucial point of delivery.
However, both Taskin and Al Amin want to cash in on the invaluable experience of their new fast bowling guru as Streak was highly successful in his career with the new ball in different conditions of the world with his vicious out-swinger to right-handers being his trademark.
“He was a world-class player and I wanted to know how to bowl in different conditions and how to read the batsman. At the same time, it’s important to know how to vary the pace in different types of wickets and what to bowl in which situation as he possesses a great amount of experience of playing all over the world,” said Taskin.
Time will only tell how much Streak’s disciples have learned and incorporated in their bowling.