Need to focus on low-risk shots: Mushy

Amidst all the fanfare surrounding the ICC Under-19 World Cup, the Bangladesh national players quietly returned to the capital yesterday following the end of their training camp in Khulna.

They spent almost a month in the peaceful south-western city trying to hone their T20 skills. The one aspect that the team management had a special focus on in the last one month was their batting. It was quite evident from the four-match T20I series against Zimbabwe that Bangladesh's batting approach has plenty of room for improvement.

While speaking to The Daily Star yesterday, senior batsmen Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal spoke about the ways the team worked on their batting.

“T20 cricket is a kind of game where you always have to play with a lot of risk. So in order to counter that, we have been working on perfecting our low-risk shots in the last two weeks. We need to strengthen those shots and get as many runs as possible,” said Mushfiqur, who said he has recovered sufficiently from his hamstring injury sustained during the Zimbabwe series.

“It's not just about power-hitting. You need plenty of skill in T20 cricket as well. A middle-order batsman does not get much time either and it's difficult. So yeah, we have to make most of our runs through non-risky hits,” he added.

Tamim echoed Mushfiqur's sentiments. “There is definitely a formula or an approach that one needs to follow while batting in T20 cricket and in the last one month or so we have been working on trying to figure that out. At the moment, following the training sessions, I think as a team we are in a much better position than what we were a year ago,” said Tamim.

The left-hander admitted that he did not have the best of times during the Zimbabwe series. He was however happy with his batting approach. In the first two games against Zimbabwe Tamim was seen trying to get set by tucking a few balls away for singles rather than attempting to punch in those drives from the beginning.

The left-hander said that he feels a lot more comfortable batting in this format at the moment.

“I don't think batting in this format is difficult. It's just that we have not been able to do well here. If you see, I had scored 20s and 30s but never really scored big, which I should have. In T20 cricket, it's those one or two batsmen, after getting set, who take the team through.

“At the moment, I am happy with the process of my batting. I have been trying to acquire this process for a long time and now that I have I'll definitely try to make the most of it."

Both Mushfiqur and Tamim will leave for Dubai to take part in the Pakistan Super League as soon as they receive their visas, which may be either today or tomorrow. Both of them expect the competition to provide them with good practice ahead of the Asia Cup and the ICC World Twenty20.