Pacers were fantastic: Streak
In essence it may seem as though Heath Streak hasn't had a lot to do in the series so far. After all, there isn't much that a pace-bowling coach can do when his quick bowlers get to bowl single-spell overs on tracks tailored for turners.
However, behind the scenes, Streak has been steadily working on forming the right pace-bowling combination for the Tigers in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year, where teams with good pacers are expected to have an edge. And he was happy with what he saw in the Tests.
“In the first Test Shahadat's [Hossain] wickets were really important. Yes the spinners did the job on that wicket, but Shahadat got [Vusimuzi] Sibanda and [Hamilton] Masakadza, which were key wickets.
“Shafiul [Hossain] and Rubel [Hossain] were fantastic as well. I have done some good work with both of them and they are starting to show some good signs. If you look at their career strike rates and what they did in this series, they performed much better and in much tougher bowling conditions,” said Streak.
The inclusion of Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Al-Amin Hossain are bound to make the pace attack a lot stronger. However Streak wants to further develop players like Abul Hasan and Shafiul and he hopes that they can make an appearance in the upcoming series. Abul, who has been recovering from an injury, has been included in a 30-player list, according to Streak, submitted for the World Cup.
“We have to cut that list to 15 by early January. Maybe some of them will get a chance sometime in the series. But we can't take Zimbabwe lightly. We need to play our best team and try and win the series. Maybe if we get into the right position then we can expose one or two of these guys,” said Streak.
This series could well be the last opportunity for the Tigers to prepare themselves for the major event. While it's still not sure how many pacers can be exposed here, Streak tries his best to include as many as he can in the practice matches. Yesterday for instance, Abul, Shafiul and Mohammad Shahid, all took two wickets each. Shafiul in particular looked very good.
Despite the dearth of matches prior to the World Cup, the Zimbabwean reckons that there's enough time to prepare the bowlers.
“We are going two weeks before the official warm up period in Brisbane. I think there's more than enough time to get them ready. It's just about making sure that we peak at the right time,” the Zimbabwean believed.
Comments