An opportunity to test the process

Bangladesh’s Test against Afghanistan comes at a time in the Test calendar when one cycle of the World Test Championship has just ended and the other is yet to begin.

This match, not part of the WTC, thus might come forth as a blessing for Bangladesh as they will only have to worry about this match, which might see them focus on their own game and the process related to it rather than creating the required blueprint to win the game.

Bangladesh are already set on that path as the pitch at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium for this match will have patches of grass on it, and the Bangladesh attack will be pace-friendly.

The Tigers’ head coach, Chandika Hathurusinghe, on Tuesday, implied that they needed to create wickets that would help their pacers and added the thought of testing out their skill set.

“As we discussed, before the Ireland series, we wanted to play a certain brand of cricket, regardless of the result. So yes, our endgame is to get results, but we wanted to understand how our skill set lasts five days in different conditions, challenging us to play in a certain way. When we want to play and get some points, when we play the WTC, we might tactically do different things, but this game is giving us the opportunity to play on a sporting wicket,” he said in a press conference on Tuesday.

While answering a question regarding creating a path of their own, the head coach said, “When you are asking about a path, we want to play a certain way against different oppositions. So accordingly, we will, regardless of whether it’s a WTC match or not, we’ll find the way best suited for us when we are playing at home. At the same time, we keep an eye on our development to play away from home.”

Bangladesh are coming into this match without any red-ball practice since their Test against Ireland in April, although many players played in Bangladesh A team’s three-match four-day series against West Indies A last month.

Hathurusinghe said he believed that Bangladesh do not need extra preparation because of playing at home.

“If you’re going away from the country and playing in a foreign condition, which we haven’t played for a long time, yes, there is relevance in the three-day (warm-up) game, but you are playing here. And then we have the condition we know,” he said.