BPL not an ideal preparation for NZ series!
Photo - Cricfrenzy
|| CF Correspondent ||
The pitches in which the matches of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) are being played had already raised a question whether it could give the Bangladeshi players an ideal preparation for their series against New Zealand in which they would visit for a full bilateral series just after the completion of the cash-rich tournament.
Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes who has been observing the tournament, dropping the idea of spending a holiday back at home didn’t give a quite different opinion and accepted the general perception.
Bangladesh will travel to New Zealand in February to play three Test and three one-day internationals along with two Twenty20 internationals.
‘’Let’s keep that quiet from the New Zealanders that we’ve been playing on these wickets. It’s far from ideal preparation, the way that we go straight from the BPL into ODIs in New Zealand,’’ Rhodes said on Friday at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.
‘’We know that the preparation is going to be very rushed for the ODIs against New Zealand but we’ll put up with that and we’ll give it our best shot and try and win the games that are put in front of us. The Test boys are different; they’ve got a little bit longer, the specialist Test guys, to prepare and acclimatize in New Zealand, so that shouldn’t be a problem,’’ he said.
The wicket of BPL had been the major talking point since the beginning of the sixth edition as it hardly produced enough runs on the board initially and though it is proving to be wrong at later stages there is question regarding pace and bounces due to lack of grass
On the contrary Bangladesh will be facing the New Zealander in grassy wickets with enough bounce into it.
“It probably doesn’t test the bowlers enough, these conditions. It certainly tests the batsmen. I’ve got no problems with the groundsmen in Bangladesh; they’re trying their best to produce the best possible wickets for T20 cricket,’’ said Rhodes.
‘’They’ve played a lot of cricket in Sylhet, Mirpur and Chittagong. So we’re at the stage of the season when the actual squares are getting beaten up quite bad. Ideally, leaving a little bit more grass on the wicket would certainly help. To some of the Bangladeshi spinners, they probably wouldn’t like that but it would make the ball come on the bat probably a little bit more,’’ he said.
“The groundsmen here did a fine job in the last game played because the wicket came on a little bit more and you saw with a bit more grass, and if you wet the wicket a little bit and rolled it in, suddenly we were getting some decent scores.”
‘’That game when Liton Das and Sabbir opened the batting, the ball came on nicely especially with the dew. That was a show of what can be produced. I think if we can try and get more wickets like that, leave in a little bit more grass that will help,’’ he added.
