‘I have always had high confidence in my bowling’

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, after picking up his first five-wicket haul in Tests in four years, said that he was always confident about his bowling and that he didn’t think that training was very important for him after about 15 years in the game.

Shakib picked up his 19th five-wicket haul, and ended with figures of 5-96, expectedly the most successful Bangladesh bowler in an innings where Sri Lanka scored 506. The last time Shakib picked up five wickets was back in 2018, when he was the Bangladesh captain.

Shakib’s five wickets were Kusal Mendis, Dimuth Karunaratne, Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan Dickwella, and Praveen Jayawickrama. While four of them came with Shakib’s regular dose of brilliance, the dismissal of Karunaratne was a beauty to behold.

Shakib, with a bit of added flight, dragged Karunaratne onto the front foot for a drive, but because of the extra drift, the ball turned enough to go through the Sri Lankan skipper’s defence and disturb the poles.

Despite displaying such guile, Shakib said he did not plan any of it.

“There was no plan, but I felt great after the dismissal,” Shakib said after the fourth day of the second Test.

Shakib, who came into the series after recovering from Covid-19, had little time to practice before the first Test. He only trained with the bat for half an hour in the nets but did not do anything with the ball.

That left questions of whether the ace all-rounder could manage the workload of Test match bowling with such little practice, but by bowling over 100 overs in the series, Shakib proved his doubters wrong again.

“Bowling is something where I always have a high confidence level. In my long career, it has happened once or twice when I was not confident with my bowling. But I was never worried about my bowling for too long. When I played four matches in the DPL (for Legends of Rupganj), I bowled maximum overs. For me, that was enough practice,” he said in the press conference on Thursday.

The former no. 1 all-rounder in Tests also said that at this stage of his career, he focuses more on how much practice he has done purposefully, rather than training longer.

“For a player, who has been playing for so long, the match fitness doesn’t come after a 15-day fitness camp or a 10-day conditioning camp. 3 to 5 sessions are enough. Yes, I had very little practice before this series. But if I am playing regularly, I think three sessions are enough for me. If I am not, then 5-6 sessions maximum, if my fitness is good. After playing for so long, the training doesn’t seem of much importance to me. What is important is how much work I do and how much I do purposefully,” the left-arm spinner said.

A noticeable change was seen in Shakib’s action as he bowled with an over-arm action, rather than his regular side-arm action seen in recent years.

Shakib said that was because the over-arm action helps him generate more turn.

“In ODIs, there is a tendency to bowl quicker (using the side-arm action) so that the batsman doesn’t get enough time. In Tests, the focus is more on turning the ball. That is why I bowl with the over-arm action,” he said.

Shakib was also seemingly in a light mood, despite his team being in danger of an innings defeat as he joked about his playing role when asked about how it felt to get a five-wicket haul after four years.

“How many matches have I played in these four years? (laughs) And I don’t even play as a bowler, right? They call me the fifth bowler, so I have less responsibility in bowling,” he jokingly said.