Grassy wickets to get top priority when cricket resumes: Bashar
Pic- Cricfrenzy
|| CF Correspondent ||
Former skipper-turned-selector of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Habibul Bashar Sumon has stated that the green-tops should be brought out when the cricket will resume after the lengthy break of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bangladesh regularly plays Tests on spin-friendly wickets at the home yard. Bangladesh fielded four spinners with no pacer in the last home Test series against Afghanistan in 2019.
Although Bangladesh lost that match against the newcomer that drew heavy flak from all the quarters, the Tigers got success against big teams like England in 2016 and Australia in 2017 on home territory with the help of spin-friendly tracks.
Keeping the slow bowlers in mind, the curators prepared wickets as per the suggestion of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for which the pacers got sidelined from those games.
BCB curator Zahid Reza Babu, who looks after the pitches of Khulna and Chattogram venue, told a leading English web portal that they were unable to make grassy wickets before due to insufficient rest of the pitch.
But Babu also said that the COVID-19 break gave them some rest for which now it’s possible to prepare grassy pitches at some venues.
BCB national team selector Habibul Bashar echoed the sentiment, stating that green-tops will be a priority for them once the cricket will resume in the country during and after the Corona break.
He said the seamers have to work more on their skills and techniques because of the saliva ban by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
“Our curators always point to lack of rest for the wickets whenever we look for the green tops,” Habibul Bashar said.
“But this time round, that won’t be the case as the pitches have gotten sufficient rest. I feel green top wickets will be a priority just to make sure our pacers have something to work with, more so in the longer version after the entire ban on saliva,” Habibul Bashar said to a leading English portal.
“Otherwise, the game will be very much dominated by the batsmen,” he added.
