Newly-appointed coach of Bangladesh, Steve Rhodes, has stated that Bangladesh need to find proper Test pacers. Rhodes’ assessment comes after a devastating Test series against West Indies where only two pacers could manage to take 8 out of a possible 40 West Indian wickets.

Of those 8, Abu Jayed took 7 while Kamrul Islam finished with just one, making Bangladesh’s Test bowling predicament even more apparent when it comes to pacers. As a result, Rhodes believes that it is imperative to find pacers for the red-ball format.

“We’ve got enough bowlers,” Steve Rhodes said. “In the Test matches, we obviously need to try and find a couple of quicker bowlers, taller bowlers, who’ll hit the wicket as the West Indian bowlers did.”

He was, however, praiseful of the spin-bowling department.

“We got some quality spin bowlers. Some of the pace bowling was excellent and it proved to be better than the West Indies.”

He then stated that while the Test series was tough, the ODI series triumph was expected. However, the T20I campaign – that ended up as a win for the Tigers – was quite surprising for him.

“The Test series was tough,” Rhodes told the reporters on Thursday. “[I am] very proud of the way the boys have come back strongly. Winning the one-dayers was something we quite fancy. So, it was great when we managed to achieve that.

“The T20Is came as a bit of a surprise. We really did play well in the second and third game. [We are] delighted to bring on two series trophies, which is a great effort.”

After that, Rhodes praised the captaincy of Mashrafe Mortaza and Shakib Al Hasan in ODIs and T20Is, respectively, and lauded Liton Das for his magnificent 61 from 32 balls in the final T20I.

“In the One-Days and the T20Is, both captains handled the bowling magnificently. Mashrafe and Shakib, both of the worked their bowlers really well.