Ashraful Blames Extra Bounce for Bangladesh’s Struggles

Bangladesh’s batting coach, Mohammad Ashraful, claimed that his team is struggling to adapt to Zimbabwe’s increased bounce. Despite going to the country having won four consecutive Test matches, Bangladesh lost the one-off encounter against the hosts by a crushing innings.

The visitors were also optimistic heading into the series after winning four straight bilateral ODI series. Bangladesh now needs to win the second ODI in Harare on July 9 to keep the series going. Before the crucial game, Ashraful, who made his debut for his nation against Zimbabwe in Harare, underlined the need of quickly acclimating to the local environment.

“Over the past seven months, our batters have played excellent cricket in our own nation. On our final journey in 2022, we travelled to Zimbabwe, where we too had difficulties.

Both in the first ODI and the two innings of the Test match, we have yet to perform well. We might not have been able to adjust here. There is undoubtedly a bit extra bounce.

Ashraful was cited by Cricbuzz as saying, “The conditions here have a little extra bounce, even though we have tried to play on good wickets in Bangladesh for the last seven months and were playing well.”

Ashraful acknowledged that Bangladesh’s hitters have faced considerable challenges because of their height and ability for more bounce, but he praised Zimbabwe’s pace attack. Zimbabwe’s speed assault is led by Richard Ngarava, who stands six feet six inches tall, and Blessing Muzarabani,

who stands six feet seven inches tall. Newman Nyamhuri, who stands 5 feet 11 inches tall, and Brad Evans, who stands 6 feet 1 inch tall, add even more variance to the seam department.

“I have played in these circumstances ever since I made my debut against Zimbabwe. I consider Zimbabwe’s current pace bowling unit to be excellent. Because of their height, these wickets are giving them more bounce.

We are working on it, even though our batsmen could be lacking in that area,” Ashraful stated.

Despite the disappointing start to the tour, Ashraful has urged Bangladesh’s hitting squad to respond firmly in the remaining games.

Ashraful added that another factor that has challenged the tourists is Zimbabwe’s larger borders. He asserted that a combination of challenging conditions and misfortune was to blame for the team’s problems.

“God willing, I have no doubt that our batters will find their rhythm in the following two games. In the upcoming two games, they will learn from their mistakes. Naturally, the performances we created were not what we had anticipated.

“I am confident that our batsmen will play as they have in Bangladesh over the past six months in the next two ODIs and three T20Is,” Ashraful stated.

“I think we were a little unfortunate. Those that left early were a bit unlucky, particularly in the most recent ODI, as all of their shots went into the hands. One thing is that the boundary is around 73–75 meters here, whereas it is about 60–65 meters when we play in Bangladesh,” he continued.