The wicket surprised us: Rhodes
Photo - Cricfrenzy
||CF Correspondent||
Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes admitted on Monday that he was surprised by the wicket as he expected it to turn in the opening Test match against Zimbabwe.
Bangladesh picked one pace bowler, Abu Jayed Rahi, in the opening Test when they decided to back three spinners and opted not to include anyone from Shafiul Islam and uncapped Khaled Ahmed.
The decision looked to have backfired as their Zimbabwe put them in all sort of trouble with their pace unit in the first hour of play by reducing them to 49/5 at one point in their first innings and questions were raised subsequently whether the Tigers failed to read the wicket or not.
Rhodes did accept that they have not been able to judge the wicket properly.
“The wicket surprised us a little bit. The ends were extremely dry leading up to the Test. The middle was a little bit more together but it got drier and drier as the first day neared. We felt that there would be a lot of spin but it hasn’t happened,” Rhodes told reporters.
“I believe against Sri Lanka in Chittagong, there was a similar situation when everyone thought it would spin but it didn’t. It is spinning but infrequently. Generally, you should be able to score off most deliveries. Reading wickets is not easy. Sometimes even with lots of experience, you can get it slightly wrong. We thought this wicket would turn a lot more,” he said.
“I am desperate to get a couple of quicker bowlers to play for Bangladesh. It would be great for them then to be able to go overseas and have some experience from playing here. We were desperate to do it as a side, but as it turned out when it came to the final call, it really came down to the wicket. We felt that the best chance was to go with the one pace bowler and three spinners. It wasn’t a balanced side. It wasn’t a balanced attack. You could argue it was a 50-50 call, thankfully we have taken 20 wickets. The reason we are in a slight hole is because of our first innings batting. We need to put it right,” he concluded.
