BPL augments pace options

A single tournament cannot provide all the solutions so one cannot expect the recently concluded Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) to endow the team with all the answers needed to make Bangladesh a good T20 side. Still the national selectors had some expectations from the third edition of the tournament ahead of Asia Cup and ICC World Twenty20, but did they gain anything from the endeavour?

"Honestly speaking, not that much," was the response from national selector Habibul Bashar.

"Comparing the first two tournaments to the third one, it was more organized but from the selectors' point of view, we have gained hardly anything. Everybody knows that we are yet to learn the craft of the shortest version of the game; especially our batting lacks the proper skill. Batting wise the performance was frustrating and we didn't get anything to think about ahead of two big tournaments," said the former national skipper.

"With a few exceptions, our batsmen were erratic. We don't play T20 cricket regularly and played the BPL after a long break which could be a reason behind the batsman's wrong approach. The pitches were not perfect for batting either so our purpose was not served. First of all we have to make sure that we can put reasonable runs on the board on a regular basis and for that we need batsmen who can understand the nature of this format," he continued.

However, Bashar said that everything was not futile as the tournament increased the range of pace bowling options. The lack of good pace bowlers and constant injury problems is always a cause of concern for the national selectors, but Bashar said that they were excited to see that 10-12 local pace bowlers made a mark in the tournament.

"Spinners, particularly the left-arm spinners, always took centre stage when it came to any domestic competition in the country, but refreshingly there was a different scenario in BPL as at least our 10-12 pace bowlers bowled well and drew attention. Yes, the conditions might have helped them a bit but the way they bowled was still encouraging for us," said Bashar.

"Al-Amin Hossain's comeback was fantastic, Mohammad Shahid surprised everybody and Mash's [Mashrafe Bin Mortaza] charismatic leadership overshadowed his good bowling efforts. But overall it was the story of a young pace bowler in Rony [Abu Haider]," he added.

Bashar believed that the just-concluded BPL gave birth to a new young talent in the form of Rony, champion Comilla Victorians' left-arm paceman.

"In my opinion Rony was outstanding. It was nice to see that he returned with his natural weapon in this tournament. He could swing the ball brilliantly while he was in the Under-19 team but suddenly became an ordinary bowler, losing the craft. But in this BPL he swung the ball brilliantly and also improved his pace to emerge as a national prospect," opined an excited Bashar.

So it would be of no surprise if Rony gets a call-up to the senior fold ahead of the two big events.