It took Bangladesh cricket team head coach Chandika Hathurusingha six months to taste the sweetness of a victory but the high profile former Sri Lankan cricketer is not relaxed with the positive outcome, rather he is looking forward to the future hurdles.
Hathurusingha had little time to settle in as he witnessed a terrible display from the Tigers as soon as he took charge through the three-match one-day home series against India in May. Returning from a win-less Caribbean tour in September, a drastic change in fortune was essential ahead of the 2015 ICC World Cup. Zimbabwe are the first real challenge for Hathurusingha (given the time he received to settle down) and didn’t the players fit in their mentor’s strategy in style!
Bangladesh outplayed Zimbabwe in all three departments to enjoy their first-ever 3-0 whitewash in Tests at home. However, the experienced coach seemed to put the triumph behind as he looks to overcome the upcoming challenges.
“I won’t use the word relieved because I am thinking about the next challenge. We did well, we have to move, for me bigger challenges will come up in the future. The main thing is to do well for the challenges up front,” said Hathurusingha after their practice session yesterday.
“I think it does justify our home advantage as well as we played as a team, we played to our plans and it’s a good win. I think the better team won, we dominated most of the sessions in all the three Test matches,” he added.
A genuine batsman of his time, Hathurusingha seemed pleased to have found the missing piece in the puzzle as the ever-so restless batters, who earlier succumbed to pressure easily, displayed great character to lead from the front.
“I think the batting of course (pleasing), our batters put runs on the board, and how we handled pressure situations, that’s one of the things. I was pleased about it because one thing when I came over, we sat down and talked about areas, we were very much concerned,” said Hathurusingha, who has over 1000 runs and eight 50s in 26 Tests for Sri Lanka, before adding he shuffled with a few combinations of players during the recent series that clicked.
However, the former coach of Sydney Thunder put the success behind and is looking forward to a competitive one-day series. He feels the shorter format is much more suitable for the visitors and said, “Yes, different format so definitely it’s going to be competitive even the Test series you can’t say it’s one sided, they gave us a good run in the first Test and even in the second Test they were in the game, I expect them to play differently because I think their bowling and batting is suited for one-day cricket, stronger batters and good decent bowlers. So I expect good competition.”
The 46-year-old does not believe the rotation in the captaincy will hamper the team momentum and opined that good communication is enough for maintaining the flow. He also termed the upcoming series as an opportunity for the players to perform and cement their place in the World Cup squad.