Newly appointed Bangladesh batting consultant Jamie Siddons is not in favor of making vast experiments with the team ahead of the two world events.
Bangladesh are currently preparing for the T20 World Cup, set to take place in Australia next October-November and then in the ODI World Cup in India in March-April 2023.
Siddons while speaking to the media in the sidelines of a practice session of the Bangladesh T20 squad at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in the port city Saturday informed that he arrived to Dhaka with a set of plans.
“I won't be me making experiments with the team. I will be working with whatever batter I am handed. We will definitely have a list of players in line for T20 cricket. I will try to improve them in that format. We also have some important Test and ODI series. We want to win every game we can," said the former Bangladesh head coach.
“T20 is the focus at the moment because it is the next World Cup but we are also preparing for a lot of games. If we can be good T20 players by October and November, we can be a much better one-day team at the end of the day in India. We know we have to make big scores in India to win or play well in the World Cup. We can't get away with 260-270. We will need 320."
Bangladesh in Chittagong have already secured the ODI series against Afghanistan after winning the first two games, with the third to take place tomorrow.
Talking on the two-match T20I series to be played in Dhaka against the same opponents, Siddons believes they will have different set of challenges, given the strength of Afghanistan in the shortest format.
“Afghanistan probably play better T20 cricket at the moment than they do ODI cricket. We know it is their favorite format. We know we have a lot of improvement to do from the T20 World Cup, part of that is the first four overs, and sustaining that smart aggression, and finishing the game. We have to score more runs quicker to win against Afghanistan," said the former Australia cricketer.
Bangladesh Cricket Board brought back Siddons - over 10 years after he served as the national team head coach from 2007 to 2011.
Serving as the batting consultant to the national side and the BCB high-performance unit, Siddons took the job because he was available and for the relation that he forged over the years with the people in Bangladesh cricket.
“I was available for coaching jobs around the world. I have always stayed in touch with Bangladesh, whether it was some of the board members who I know quite well from the past, or a lot of the players. A role came up to come and be batting consultant, to work with HP. It includes all the juniors and the national team. I was always going to be working with national team players. Whether that was going to be on a full-time basis or not, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t really care. I loved Bangladesh last time, but some people don’t believe that. I loved my time here last time for three years. I was looking forward and hoping there’d be an opportunity to come back. Now I am here,” said Siddons.
