Marshal Ayub, who made his Test debut against New Zealand in Chittagong in the first match of the series where the right hander showed his compact batting but was unable to build a substantial score, remained confident that he could perform well in the second Test at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium which starts on October 21.
After the first training sessions after the Eid holiday, Marshall told reporters, “The last time I played in Mirpur was during the BCL. In the Premier league I saw that most of the matches had 300 plus runs, so I am hoping to do well here inshallah.”
The stylish right hander made 25 on his debut innings before nicking a wide delivery from Corey Anderson. Nonetheless, he added 126 with Mominul Haque after Bangladesh had lost two early wickets and was instrumental in rescuing the Tigers front a precarious position. In the second innings, he made 31.
“I tried to make a good start, tried to play well, but it didn’t go according to plan. I came under pressure and played a false shot in the first innings. It was wide. Will try to do better in the coming match,” said Marshal.
The 24-year old has an impressive record in first class and domestic cricket but noted that the Test cricket was a different proposition. “In Test cricket, there are more good balls and in domestic cricket there are more bad balls. That has been the main difference,” he observed.
However, Marshal who has two double hundreds at the first class level, added that he did not feel under pressure for the difference.“I don’t think there is any sort of a pressure, because even in domestic cricket we lose wickets early in the innings and we play with that pressure. That was the same situation when I came in to bat in the first Test.
“There is no pressure on me to score just because I scored in domestic cricket. I’ll just try to play my own game,” he said.