Domingo backs inclusion of Naim in playing XI
AFP
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Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo endorsed Mohammad Naim's inclusion in the playing XI despite his poor form, saying the left-hander deserved a spot in the second game against Afghanistan.
“Five games ago everyone was saying Liton (Das) should be dropped. Now everyone is saying Liton is the best player in the world. Sometimes players go through slumps in form. Coaches and selectors have to support those players. It is an important part of coaching and building a team. Naim was the right guy to play. He is our highest-rated T20I batsman, if the media don’t know that. He deserves his spot,” Domingo said after losing the second T20I against Afghanistan Saturday.
In the second game, Naim scored nine runs off 15 balls, while in the first T20I against the Afghans, he scored two runs off five balls. So far, the southpaw has scored 809 runs in 34 T20Is for the Tigers, with an average of 24.51 and a strike rate of 103.71.
Prior to that, the top-order batter had a terrible season with Minister Group Dhaka in the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 2022, scoring 50 runs in seven innings with an average of 8.33 and a strike rate of 65.78.
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Bangladesh are having a poor run of late in T20Is as they have lost nine games out of last 10.
The Tigers' head coach said that there are many areas where they can develop in order to become a better team, but fielding will be one of the most important.
“We lost to South Africa, England, Pakistan, the West Indies and Sri Lanka among our last 10 games. They are not bad sides. Those are good sides. In this format, once you lose confidence and momentum, it can easily get into a run to lose games. We need to do a lot of improvement in this particular format. We are long way from where we need to be in this format. We started going in the right direction but there has been some hiccups off late," said the South African.
