Bangladesh batting coach Jamie Siddons said the 2-0 series whitewash to hosts West Indies was down to his batters’ failure to cope with the bounce, pace and swing the Windies bowlers generated.
The Bangladesh batters according to Siddons also had the challenge to deal with the behavior of the Dukes cricket ball.
Siddons took to his official social media account Tuesday to express his thoughts on yet another failure by Bangladesh batters in Test cricket and the criticism the team has been facing.
“There is no escaping the fact that we played very poorly in our two Test matches. A lot of comments coming through. Everyone is allowed to have their say but my reality is to watch and learn about my players in the heat and pressure of Test match cricket. It is the toughest challenge in the game,” said Siddons.
“Our players found it very tough with the bounce, pace and swing that the West Indies produced. The Dukes ball behaves very differently than the Kookaburra we use at home and the pitches are far more lively than ours. As international players we must find ways to prepare for these conditions and that is always a challenge,” the former Australia cricketer added.
Siddons in his statement praised wicketkeeper-batter Nurul Hasan and right-arm pacer Khaled Ahmed.
Nurul made it into the playing XI in the series in place of veteran Mushfiqur Rahim, who is on leave.
Right-handed middle-order batter Nurul made decent use of the opportunity, scoring half-centuries in both games amid the batting unit’s struggles.
Khaled on the other hand finished with most wickets for Bangladesh, 10 across two games, including his maiden five-for in the second game of the series.
“Sohan (Nurul) was a standout with his two sixties and Liton [Das], Tamim [Iqbal] and [Nazmul Hossain] Shanto all threatened to post decent scores but couldn’t go on with their starts,” said Siddons.
“Our bowlers were very good by the end of the matches and Khaled finished with a five-wicket haul which was his first. Test cricket as I said is very hard and we need to be tougher if we are going to succeed. We don’t hide from it, we recognize it and keep working to improve,” the former Bangladesh head coach added.
Bangladesh in the tour will now face the hosts in a three-match T20I series starting at Dominica Saturday.
The second match will be played at the same venue Sunday followed by the third and final game of the series at Providence next Thursday.
Bangladesh will play three ODIs in the last phase of the tournament on July 10, 13 and 16 respectively.
