We have got some potential superstars: Siddons

Jamie Siddons, Bangladesh’s head coach from 2008 to 2011, has returned to Bangladesh, this time as the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s batting consultant. He is currently working as the batting coach of the national team, where he has been reunited his old disciples Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Mahmudullah Riyad, and also got a look at Bangladesh’s younger players such as Liton Das, Afif Hossain, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, and Mahmudul Hasan Joy.

After Bangladesh sealed their ODI series against Afghanistan on Friday, Siddons spoke to the media on Saturday, where he spoke about his reason to come back, his opinion on the team, and where the team could be improved.

Reason for comeback

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 or a lot of the players. A role came up to come and be batting consultant, to work with HP. 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. I was looking forward and hoping there’d be an opportunity to come back. Now I am here.

Current crop of talent in the Bangladesh team

There are four or five six-foot tall fast bowlers who bowl 140-plus (kph). It is quite exciting to me. You still have the world’s best all-rounder, who delivers nearly every day. I have already seen some young talent in the two games- Miraz, Afif, and Liton. They are quality, classy and calm cricketers who will only get better. The more they play, the more times they will perform in big matches. These are pressure games for our boys. They had to win these games. The young players stood up which is great to see.

Experimenting with upcoming World Cups in mind

It 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.

T20s is the focus, because it is the next World Cup but we are also preparing for a lot of games. If we can be a 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.

Areas of improvement for the senior players

For me a lot of it is footwork. Tamim wants to straighten up his front foot. It won’t happen really quickly, but we are talking about long-term. If he is going to play for the next three or four years, he has to straighten his front foot up a bit. He will have a lot more success. If he doesn’t get out lbw, they will find it very hard to get him out. He will play a lot of runs. I can see his best cricket is still ahead of him.

Consistency of the young players

We have to remember that Tamim, Shakib, Mushfiq and Riyad were all inconsistent when they started. We could have dropped them at any stage of their career. We have got some potential superstars here. We give them time, pick the right ones and nurture them. We should give them opportunities without putting too much pressure on them. I have no doubt that they will be the new Shakibs and Tamims.

T20I openers - Munim & Naim

I am meeting them for the first time today. I saw some of them play in the BPL. They looked pretty good. We are looking to get better at our starts, our powerplays in T20s, and definitely finishing a bit better than we do.