Home ›› 25 Jul 2022 ›› Sport
Nurul Hasan Sohan faced the formal media conference as the newly appointed Bangladesh T20I captain on Sunday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, where he expressed his intention to measure the impact on the game rather than just numbers.
The wicket-keeper batsman made his international debut in 2016 but was hardly considered a prodigy or talent, as in most cases, he served as a second fiddle player. Therefore, he has played only seven Tests, six One-Day internationals, and 33 Twenty20 Internationals, while his contemporary players like Soumya Sarkar and Liton Das have played hundreds of matches for Bangladesh.
The poor performance of the previous captain Mahmudullah and the unavailability of Shakib Al Hasan led the selectors and the cricket operations committee of the Bangladesh Cricket Board to opt for a new option, and Sohan emerged as the right choice with his experience in leadership in domestic cricket.
In his first interaction with the media as a skipper, Sohan kept it simple and easy.
“It’s not the time to show excitement. In my personal and professional life, I have limited my expectations. I only think about carrying on my hard work, following the process and being honest with myself. I am not anxious about results, future, or past. I am trying to stay away from pressure for a long time. It (pressure of captaincy) will not matter to me,” he said in the press conference.
Bangladesh are yet to achieve significant success in T20I due to a lack of power-hitting abilities. Sohan said he will try to instil ‘fearless cricket’ among the team members.
“Playing fearless cricket is very important. We will try to play fearless cricket. If you think too much about the result, the outcome will not be the expected one. When fear factors work inside the mind, then negativity will prevail. We must try to avoid any negative impact on us,” Sohan told the media at SBNCS.
Utilising power-play overs, scoring runs at a higher strike rate, and power-hitting- all three key aspects of becoming a better T20 side are missing in the Bangladesh team presently. On top of that, poor fielding has cost the Tigers dearly.
Sohan, who is at the helm just for three matches, cannot make things right magically. But he said he will not only look for runs or wickets but will consider how impactful the performance was as a skipper.
“In a T20 match, for those who bat at middle and lower-middle order, the strike rate is more important than the number of runs scored. 15-20 runs might sound small, but we have to see the impact of that score on the game,” said the newly-appointed captain.
During the 20-minute-long press conference, the new captain hardly uttered anything his predecessors did not say seating on the same chair. He kept repeating the keywords like ‘team performance’, ‘fearless cricket’, and ‘contribution of senior cricketers’ in almost every one of his answers. A well-rehearsed script, which he tried to put in for every question.
Considering the current situation and performance, Bangladesh are capable enough to win against Zimbabwe without the mainstream cricketers. But with the format being T20, where their weakness is visible, BCB is trying out a new formation.
Without Shakib, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Mahmudullah, Sohan should push himself up in the order and give Afif Hossain a chance to bat for longer to have some scoring opportunities.
Sohan could be the gamble that BCCI won by making Mahendra Singh Dhoni the captain. Or he could be those accidental captains like Shahriar Nafees and Rajin Saleh, who led Bangladesh on just one and two occasions.
It is almost certain that Sohan will lose the leadership after this series as Shakib will take over from the Asia Cup to ICC T20 World Cup. This is a big opportunity for him to come out from being the second fiddle and take the lead role. To do that, he must make the most of his three T20Is as a captain.
