Bangladesh batting coach Ashwell Prince is expecting visitors New Zealand to leave no stones unturned when they face each other in the five-match T20I series.
Prince resigned as head coach of South Africa's Western Province earlier this month to take up the permanent role as batting coach of the Bangladesh national team.
The former South African cricketer was initially assigned for Bangladesh’s tour of Zimbabwe, missed the home series against Australia and is now back to guide the batting department starting with the New Zealand series.
“I think we can expect New Zealand to analyze and plan well and to use the recent Australia series for them to learn from. I think they will learn meticulously against every batsmen and bowlers of ours [Bangladesh]. And also, in particular of the pitches and conditions that they are expecting to play on. They will use every bit of information and think that’s where New Zealand as a team are very smart,” said Prince to the media in the sidelines of the practice session at Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka Saturday.
Bangladesh are going into the series as favorites having been in winning momentum added by the home advantage.
The team on the tour of Zimbabwe won the lone Test, the three ODIs and the T20I series 2-1 before registering a historic 4-1 T20I series win against Australia in Dhaka.
There is also the fact that on pen and paper, Bangladesh are superior given that the New Zealand squad doesn’t involve any members from the their main team which will play the upcoming T20 World Cup.
“What really excites me about this Bangladesh team is that we have got a good mix of experience players and young exciting players who are coming into the team. Not just in batting department but also in bowling department. Fast bowling department. We have young guys coming into the team who won U-19 World Cup so they have been useful to the team and also adds having played in a big tournament and being successful there. There is good quality getting added in every department,” said Prince.
“I think one of the biggest differences between the Zimbabwe series and the series we had here recently against Australia is conditions. The surfaces that we are playing on. Adaptability is a very important aspect to batting. We played in bouncier conditions in Zimbabwe. I think the team adjusted really well to that and be victorious in that series and coming home to Bangladesh conditions like lower bounce, scoring rates a lot lower and being able to adapt to the condition is very important. I think for New Zealand series the condition will be similar and key learning will be from the Australia series. We had a nice discussion between the batsmen (Friday), sharing with the guys who did not play like Liton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim, although these guys are experienced. There was a good discussion on what we would like to improve,” said the former left-handed batsman.
Bangladesh openers in Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Naim had struggled in the series against Australia.
Prince however, is not bothered, citing the challenge the condition has been for the batsmen in the series.
Prominent opener Tamim Iqbal missed out from the series due to knee injury and the status for the left-handed batsman remains unchanged even in the series against New Zealand.
“I am not concerned about the opening batsmen. I think we had one or two good partnerships in Zimbabwe. Against Australia the conditions were tough. It is not easy to score boundaries frequently like you would do on pitches where the ball is coming quick and has bounce. Adapting to the condition will be important, partnerships will be important. I think we have a strong competition for the opening slots with people like Liton coming back to the team, so having this kind of competition is very important,” Prince explained.
The first of the five T20Is is set to take place Wednesday behind closed doors in Mirpur.
The remaining matches of the series will take place on September 3, 5, 8 and 10 respectively.
