Bangladesh spin bowling coach Sunil Joshi speaks to reporters during a training session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Monday. — BCB photo
Bangladesh’s spin bowling coach Sunil Joshi heaped praise on all-rounder Sakib al Hasan on Monday, hailing him as ‘best one-day international cricketer in the world’ and predicting more benefit for the Tigers from his skill and experience.
Sakib returned to the ODI side with the first match against West Indies after he missed Bangladesh’s last two matches of the Asia Cup and Zimbabwe series with an old finger injury.
Though he was not at his sublime best in his comeback match, Sakib played a vital role with 1-36 and 30 runs in Bangladesh’s five-wicket win that gave the home side 1-0 lead in three-match series.
‘I think Sakib is not only our national honour or talent, you can say he is the best ODI cricketer in world cricket,’ Joshi told reporters in Mirpur.
‘If you look at his qualities, I’m not talking about his numbers…as a bowler, as a fielder as a batsman, he is tremendously talented, skillful and for most of the skillful players just take a few sessions [to make their mark].
‘They will be on button as well. So that’s what we have Sakib and he brings in a lot of experience, lot of technical and tactical ability around the team and for which the team should be benefited,’ he added.
Bangladeshi spinners are a passing a brilliant time under the supervision of the former Indian spinner Joshi as they have done exceptionally well in all three formats.
In the recent 2-0 win over West Indies in the Test series, four Bangladeshi spinners Sakib, Taijul Islam, Mehedi Hasan and Nayeem Hasan accounted all 40 wickets, while Nazmul Islam did well in limited-over matches.
Joshi revealed that a strong mind-set of trying to be consistent had brought them successes.
‘I always think as a player what a spinner needs for his mindset. It’s his mindset or performing consistently at international cricket,’ he said.
Joshi cited the example of Taijul, who according to him put an extra-effort in the field and also hailed Mehedi for his consistency in the past two years.
The former Indian spinner said his next assignment would be making them equally effective in overseas.
‘Probably I would look at changing the mindset when we go away from home, adapting to the condition and adapting to those batsmen, it’s a challenge. That I’m trying to share with the players,’ he added.
‘If we look at the performance overall of this team in last two years, the graph is growing up,’ he said.
‘So we need to be consistent. Everyone is realising what it takes to perform at the international cricket. So they are all, everyone is working.’
Bangladesh will play their second match of the ongoing ODI series against West Indies in Mirpur today.
Source: New Age.
