Bangladesh left-arm spinner Taijul Islam believes the wicket at Kandy is not helping the bowlers much, making a push for victory in the first Test against Sri Lanka unlikely for the Tigers.
At the end of day three, the hosts in their first innings were comfortably placed to avoid the follow on at 229/3 in reply to Bangladesh's mammoth 541/7 declared. Captain Dimuth Karunaratne and Dhananjaya de Silva will resume on day 4 unbeaten with 85 and 26 respectively.
Earlier, riding on a maiden century for Najmul Hossain Shanto and maiden away century for captain Mominul Haque, Bangladesh posted an impressive first innings total. Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das also did well hitting a fifty each. But clearly the lifeless pitch also played its part.
“To be honest, there is no help from the wicket to create a situation to win this game. It’s the same for the pace-bowler and the spinners,” Taijul said in a virtual press conference after play wrapped up on day 3.
“We have to work hard maintaining discipline. If we can ensure that, we may be able to create a situation to win this game,” Taijul added. The left-arm spinner did bag a wicket with a peach of a delivery to remove the dangerous Angelo Mathews. Other than that, it was pretty tough going under the hot Sri Lankan sun.
While describing the plan for the next day, Taijul said that they will take the field eyeing a victory but will make sure that they don’t lose this game from this stage.
Possibly the best chance of a result in this game lies in Bangladesh being able to bowl their hosts out for 341 or less in the first innings - the follow on target. Sri Lanka are currently 112 runs short of that with 7 wickets in hand.
Bangladesh are missing the service of the spin bowling consultant Daniel Vettori. Due to Covid-19 restriction in his country, Vettori was unable to travel to Sri Lanka. In his absence, the Bangladesh Cricket Board appointed Sohel Islam as the spin bowling coach for the Sri Lanka tour.
“We never get the service of a spin bowling consultant for a longer period of time. I have previously worked with Sohel personally. He understands the problem I’m facing. He just needs to see me once. I really feel comfortable working with him. I think we can do something good together,” Taijul added.
