Rhodes: We’ll fight back in second Test

After a shocking performance against visiting Zimbabwe, hosts Bangladesh are eyeing a turnaround in their upcoming second Test which will start from next Sunday at Mirpur.

A disastrous batting performance lead Bangladesh to a 151 run defeat in the first Test and Bangladesh only managed to score 143 and 169 in their two innings against Zimbabwe. Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes still believes Bangladesh can produce a turnaround and perform dominantly in the second and final match of the series

“These guys are really determined to put things right and that’s what I love about the Bangladeshi dressing room. They keep surprising me and they keep bouncing back. We lose in the one-dayers, we lose some wickets and suddenly a big partnership. They will fight and this next Test match, they are determined,” coach said to the media at the Sylhet International stadium in Sylhet on Wednesday.

“Certainly the only thing that went wrong in this game was our batting in the first innings.  We missed an opportunity in our first innings batting and there was nothing wrong with our plans or tactics, we just made a mess of it in our first innings. To get rolled over for 140 and be 140 runs behind, going into the third innings of the game was quite disastrous for us. It’s something we will have to put right, whatever happens at Mirpur with our plans,” he added.

Such a batting display raised questions about the selection process of the Test squad as there are few players in the likes of Tushar Imran, Naeem Islam, who are scoring runs in first class cricket quite regularly. But the coach believes, the players in the current squad are also scoring a lot of runs in the in NCL and the team management is backing this group of player as a result.

“In the NCL, the guys that are playing now (in the national team) are scoring a lot of runs. They are actually scoring more runs than some of the guys that are being mentioned. (Nazmul Hasan) Shanto made a 180, Liton Das made 200, Mominul (Haque) made 100 not out in his last game, Ariful (Haque) got a double century. At the moment I feel we’ve got our best players barring Tamim (Iqbal) and Shakib (Al Hasan) and so at the moment, we are backing these guys.”

“Everybody has a bad day. You guys will often go to work and have a bad day at work and we had a really bad day at work in that first innings while batting. We will try and put things right with the players we’ve got. I will like a better result in the Test match and we will be working hard with the crop we have got,” the coach concluded.