'Shakib can't grip the bat'

Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistan captain, took the blame for his team's poor show at the Asia Cup, but said that there's time to rebuild the team for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

A convincing eight-wicket win over Hong Kong in the tournament opener suggested Pakistan were going to be a force. But it was followed by an eight-wicket defeat to India, and then, following a last-over win over Afghanistan in the Super Fours, losses to India and Bangladesh. As a result, Pakistan crashed out of the tournament they have won twice in the past.

"Yes, our performance was very poor. Our batting wasn't good, and we dropped a lot of catches. Our bowling was also patchy, and that's the reason we are out of the tournament," accepted Ahmed, who had a poor run with the bat himself, scoring 68 runs in four innings.

"I still believe we have a lot of talented players in the team. Look at Fakhar Zaman. Though he didn't have a good tournament, we have to back him. Babar Azam too. Imam has, thankfully, done well, but there's also Shadab and Hasan. We have to back them and take them along with us. We have to look at our bench too. We have a pool of players, and by the time the World Cup comes, we'll have a good team," said Ahmed.

"The World Cup is quite some time away, we have other engagements before that. Australia are coming, and then there's New Zealand. So we have to review our performance and see where we are falling short.

"We are losing too many wickets early, and the middle order has had to deal with the new ball, which isn't easy, and hitting quickly in the end isn't easy on these pitches. We'll have to get together and fix these issues."

While Ahmed called the performance 'alarming', he added, "There's no need to press the panic button. Yes, we have made mistakes as a team, and as a captain, I know that I didn't do well. But no need to panic, we need to back the players, look at the positions and see if there are people outside the team who can come in."

An agonising five-run defeat against Pakistan saw Bangladesh bow out of the ongoing ICC Under-19 World Cup from the Super Sixes on Saturday. The reigning Asian Champions had high hopes of winning the title for the second time since 2020, and it seemed as if a semifinal berth was almost in their grasp. The Daily Star's Mazhar Uddin caught up with Stuart Law, the coach of the Bangladesh Under-19 side, as he reflected on the things that went wrong, takeaways for the young Tigers from the tournament in South Africa among a few other topics. The excerpts of the interview are as follows:

The Daily Star (DS): It must have been a painful exit for the Bangladesh team from the ICC Under-19 World Cup.

Stuart Law (SL): We spoke about not only winning the match but also in the time where we needed to keep that run-rate above Pakistan to qualify and spoke about the best way to do this. We won the toss and we would bowl first and try to restrict Pakistan under 200 which we did and did very well. Bowling was excellent; great performance from (Rohanat Doullah) Borson and (Sheikh Parvez) Jibon and they were standouts with the ball in hand and our fielding was excellent. We took great catches and executed a good run-out. We were really up for the fight. Then when we were batting, we knew we have 38.1 overs to score the runs which work out in four runs per over. Unfortunately, the pressure got a bit too much for us and Pakistan bowled very well with good pace. The pitch was different from what we been playing in Bloemfontein as there was good bounce and wasn't batter-friendly, so it was always going to be a little bit difficult. However, we feel we should have won the game and we should have been progressing to the semifinals. It was heartbreaking.

There were a lot of tears in the dressing room and the boys were really upset and disappointed with their performance with the bat after putting on a great performance in the field. It was a tough one to comprehend and to explain the last evening for the players, it was difficult. We all wanted to continue this journey forward but unfortunately it was cut short.

DS: How much does it hurt you as a coach?

SL: It doesn't hurt me as a coach but it hurts me because the players are so upset. I am not here for myself, I am here for the players. I have been on this journey for 20 months with them and I think I have missed one practice game in cricket throughout the whole 20 months. To watch these boys to develop not only as young cricketers but also as young men, it was a huge outpour of emotion. I hope you don't want to feel that often as I said to the boys last night (Saturday), 'look pain of this defeat will disappear, it's the memories that we created will last forever. Just think about the memories we are still Asia Cup champions and will remain the Asia Cup champions for the next two years. That's a huge positive and the first time Bangladesh achieved the feat. So there's really good things we have achieved along with the journey and we have numerous series wins and two wins outside of Asia. Hopefully, the hurt of missing out on the semifinal will disappear quickly and we fly out of South Africa today and hopefully starting from tomorrow, it will be a lot easier to forget about it.

DS: Do you think batting was a concern for the team throughout the tournament?

SL: I always think we could have been better in all areas but we are talking about kids who are under-19. Every day they are going to make mistakes as a young man learns from making mistakes. Yes, we have made similar mistakes quite often which is probably more concerning than actually making the mistake. It's a development stage in their career; to play at the higher level under extreme pressure is only going to benefit them in the long run. Yes, everyone wants to win, don't get me wrong, this age group shouldn't be all about winning. We should bank on unearthing some of the talents for the Bangladesh senior team in years to come. I think we have achieved that quite well.

DS: Who are the players you think can go on to represent the senior team soon?

SL: There are a few and from the bowling point of view. I mentioned Borson and I will get back to the Asia Cup semifinal against India and in the final against UAE, he was unbelievable. We had a good quality back up in Maruf (Mridha) and (KIqbal Hossain) Emon as well. But the standout fast bowler would be Borson and probably the lesser mentioned spinner would be Jibon. In all conditions, whether it's a spinning one or not he finds a way to create pressure and put dot balls together and he got wickets in important time and he was outstanding against Pakistan too. There's another: Ariful (Islam) -- against Ireland, USA and Nepal he scored some quick runs to elevate the run-rate. I think they got to develop in how to get better in their games and there is one thing that Ariful needs to learn is how to rotate the strike when there is pressure. (Ashiqur Rahman) Shibly had a good Asia Cup as well and he is probably on the radar.

DS: What will be your message to the players who will now take a step further in domestic circuit from the under-19 level?

SL: My message would be to go out there and to listen to their coaches. Every coach has a different philosophy at different level and you need to do what the coach and the team needs. The process doesn't change; what they have learnt here will give them success everywhere they go as long as they stick to it and believe it. Batting is one of the departments which still needs developments and needs to understand the value of a solid defence, being able to use your footwork and create better opportunities to rotate strikes and power. They all got power in their timing, so they don't really need to go to all these power hitting coaches. You know 90 percent of your power comes from your makeup, DNA. So these guys need to find another way to get the job done as they have got good skills. Just keep drilling these things.

DS: What is your personal plan from here on?

SL: I haven't been spoken to by Bangladesh about continuing. There are a few opportunities in the pipeline for me. I would dearly like to stay with Bangladesh and continue my work here and really enjoyed seeing the boys from the 2016 Under-19 side as part of the coaching panel back then and how they are doing well at the international stage. I really enjoy my time in Bangladesh and I don't have any bad words to say as it's a great place to work and the players are receptive and responsive and eager to learn and get better. That just gives you a great feeling to continue. Conversations are yet to happen, so I don't know at this stage what is going on.

Chairman of Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB) Women's Wing Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel confirmed that the 26 contracted players of the national team pool did not get paid for five months due to a 'technical reason'. 

Nigar Sultana Joty's troops clinched a 2-1 ODI series win over Pakistan after winning the third and final match in Mirpur on Friday after which it was reported that the players had not been getting their wages for five months.

Nadel explained the whole scenario pointing out that the board had not signed on the agreed contract list of players that needed to be sent to the accounts section for approval of the players' wages.

"It's because of a technical reason. We delivered the contract list (of players) to the board long before. Now, if the accounts department does not receive it from the board then they cannot approve the salaries. 

"Since everyone was busy playing in series, tournaments, and camps, no one felt the financial difficulty nor did anyone inform me about it. I got to know four to five days back," Nadel told The Daily Star on Monday.

According to Nadel, none of the players had notified him about this mishap and did not create a ruckus despite not being paid for a period of five months. 

Following the ICC Women's T20 World Cup in South Africa in February, the national team played series against Sri Lanka, India and them went to China to take part in the Asian Games before taking on Pakistan at home.  

"I told Papon bhai about it at a dinner party two days ago after the series win against Pakistan. I had discussions about it with the CEO before this. The players did not create an issue out of this. We have confirmed the list and they will receive their salaries in the next one or two days," he said.

The series win over Pakistan propelled the Tigresses to seventh on the ICC Women's Championship standings. The top six teams will qualify directly for the World Cup in 2025 in India.

Against Pakistan, Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan posted his highest score in the ongoing World Cup, which only highlighted how far the all-rounder has fallen from the incredible form with the bat he enjoyed in the previous edition of the competition.

The tournament he had in 2019 is the kind any player would dream of having at least once in cricket's most coveted event.

Nothing about Shakib's incredible run in the England World Cup was a fluke. He batted at number three in that edition, specifically asking the team management to let him bat at that elevated position and came into the tournament having done his homework.

Despite many of his team mates' struggles during the tournament, Shakib appeared to be in a zone of his own, scoring 606 runs at the tournament at an average of over 86 with two tons and five fifties.

This World Cup has been a far cry from his performances in 2019. So far, Shakib has scored just 104 runs in six innings at an average of just 17.33.

The difference in form is also apparent from the way he has been playing the short balls in this edition compared to the one four years back.

In 2019, he was getting well on top of the bouncers and looked mostly in control against them. But this year, he has gotten out to rising deliveries multiple times.

Yesterday at Kolkata's Eden Garden, Shakib came in at number six following the 79-run stand between Liton Das and Mahmudullah Riyad, the latter pushed further up the order due to his consistency.

Bangladesh needed another partnership to build on from the previous one and then kick on in the final overs.

But Shakib was too cautious and he seemingly couldn't find a way to rotate the strike as it took nine deliveries to open his account.

He scored 20 off his first 44 deliveries and while Mahmudullah had reached his fifty at a brisk pace, Shakib's confidence level appeared to be at the opposite spectrum.

"Of course the match situation was such that if he had gotten out then, the match would go out of hand since there was a chance to get at least 250," Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, who worked with Shakib when the all-rounder came to Bangladesh mid-tournament , told The Daily Star yesterday

"It was noticeable that he was very aware of his form. He seemed low on confidence. Maybe he wanted to see the ball better but usually it [head position] isn't like that," he added.

Shakib grinded at the middle for 64 balls, scoring 43 runs thanks to the hat-trick of boundaries he hit against Iftikhar Ahmed in the 37th over.

But right as it seemed Shakib was returning to his old self, he fell to a short delivery, trying to hook Haris Rauf.

Against the pacer, there was a noticeable change in his stance as he was facing towards mid-on, which is unusual for him.

Fahim feels that the weight of captaincy may be weighing down on Shakib and hurting his batting.

"Captaincy is always a headache since you don't get time to think about your own game, you think about the team's plans.

"When he faces a problem, he overcomes it quite quickly and gets out of the patch. This time it hasn't happened," Fahim said.