Captain Mushfiqur Rahim’s absence on the second day affected the Bangladesh side and though the hosts are still trailing by 501 runs in their first innings Nasir Hossain thinks a full day batting is needed to turn the game on its head.
“Bangladesh is not too much in the back foot. If we can bat all day, we will be in a good position,” said Nasir after the second day’s play yesterday. “The mentality was affected. He is our main wicket-keeper and captain. We missed a few chances behind the wicket, but (Shamsur Rahman) Shuvo bhai is not a regular keeper, we have to keep that in mind. I hope Mushfiq bhai can bat well tomorrow, but it is still a hope. Not confirmed,” he added.
Bangladesh had the worst possible start when they came out to bat as Tamim Iqbal could not reverse his fortunes from the first Test and failed once again. “The ball that got Tamim out, kept low which was also the case for all the leg-before decisions. We tried to do this when we bowled. We were not too defensive. We tried to bowl wicket-to-wicket,” said Nasir.
The 22-year old added, “We have to bat with cool heads. Personally I feel that we usually play too many shots, which we should not do in Test cricket.”
The occasional offspinner took the final wicket of the Sri Lanka innings, the wicket of the triple centurion Kumar Sangakkara and Nasir revealed, “We thought that he would score 300, and then it seemed to me he could make 400. I felt that I can’t let him do that.”
