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All-rounder Shak Mahedi Hasan feels that Bangladesh can follow Sri Lanka in order to improve power-hitting abilities, which have become a strong skill in Twenty20.
Mahedi has become a regular part of the T20I squad of Bangladesh, playing 34 matches so far, and has also been picked for the upcoming three-match series against Zimbabwe.
Bangladesh have not succeeded in the T20s, and the Bangladesh Cricket Board wants to reboot the thought process regarding this format. Mahedi believes with proper planning and training the Tigers can overcome the lack of power-hitting abilities.
“We are Bangladeshis. None of us is power hitters. We can’t play like Andre Russell or Kieron Pollard. But we have to make improvements according to our abilities. Sri Lanka have power hitters. If we can make the most of our abilities, we can become better than Sri Lanka,” Mahedi told the reporters on Tuesday.
The national selectors have rested Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah for the T20I series against Zimbabwe. Shakib Al Hasan has opted out of the entire tour to play in the Caribbean Premier League. Tamim also announced his retirement from the T20 format. That means there will not be any ‘senior’ cricketers on the T20 team. Rather than thinking of it as an opportunity, Mahedi believes it is the natural process.
“In our country, batting positions in T20 are shuffled way too much, which Sri Lanka do not. (Kumar) Sangakara, Mahela (Jayawardene), (Tillakaratne) Dilshan have taken the Sri Lankan team to a certain level. Sri Lanka have not been that good since they left. At one stage, our senior cricketers will also retire. It (Zimbabwe series) is an opportunity for us to make the decisions ourselves,” Mehedi told the reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
Mahedi made his international debut in 2018 and feels that without the seniors, the team is not that inexperienced.
“Nobody is a youngster in this team except for Munim Shahriar and Parvez Hossain Emon. The rest of the cricketers have played for three to five years. Maybe there is none with 10 years of experience, but we have players who have been playing for six to eight years,” said the all-rounder.
Albie Morkel worked with the Bangladesh team for a small stint as the power-hitting coach. Nowadays, many T20 teams have appointed specialists to increase the power-hitting abilities of the players and Mahedi believes that Bangladesh should also get one.
“Yes, we need a power-hitting coach. But the coach can improve hardly 10% of your ability. A coach can’t take it from 30% to 100%. We are born like this, nothing can be changed overnight,” he said on Tuesday.
“We have been playing T20s for almost 15 years. If we could succeed with the way we are going, we would become successful long ago. But as we are not improving, we have to do more. We can’t do anything beyond our limits, we must also keep that in mind,” added Mahedi.
