BSS- Bangladesh national cricket team captain Najmul Hossain Shanto wants leg spinner Rishad Hossain to make a seamless progress into the all format of cricket after preparing himself properly.
Rishad has been currently doing well in T20 cricket and his ability to read the game and cricket sense gave a glimpse that he may thrive in other format of cricket too.
But Shanto is not in favour to put pressure on him by playing excessive cricket at this moment, keeping in mind that in the past many talented players lost down the memory lane only because of playing all format of cricket before their body and mind is ready to take huge toll of International cricket.
Rishad’s performance in T20 World Cup was amazing. The 21-year-old spin all-rounder took 14 wickets at an economy rate of 7.76 after bowling 25 overs in seven matches which is the feat of highest wicket in a World Cup as a Bangladeshi bowler.
National team captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto believes the performance doesn’t mean that Rishad is ready yet to take the pressure of longer version format.
“Only the selectors can say better about this (whether they want Rishad to play Test cricket),” Shanto said.
“But as far as my experience goes, I don’t think he is ready for red ball cricket at the moment. The time is not ripe yet.”
Bangladesh’s next assignment is a two-match Test series against Pakistan. The players who are in the radar to be included in the Test squad are now preparing themselves by playing four-day matches in different areas.
Mushtaq Ahmed joined the coaching squad of Bangladesh before the T20 World Cup. The legendary leg-spinner’s touch is believed to change Rishad. However, he didn’t continue as Bangladesh’s spin bowling coach after the tournament.
Shanto doesn’t want to credit only Mushtaq for Rishad’s improvement, rather he also gave credit to the local coaches for Rishad’s smooth progress.
“He (Mushtaq) has done a very good job. I don’t know about the kind of agreement he had with the board. Probably he had the contract until the World Cup. But he did a great job. Rishad was very comfortable with him, so were the rest of the spinners,” Shanto said.
“But I don’t want to give credit only to Mushtaq Ahmed. The domestic coaches also should get the credit. The local coaches indeed made him. Mushtaq Ahmed is vastly experienced. He won the World Cup, was the coach of the World Cup winning team. He shared his experiences with Rishad and gave some valuable tips,” Shanto added.
Shanta also said, “Tactically he shared some things with Rishad, which was very beneficial for him. But the local coaches had a very big role. Sohail Islam was there to motivate him, show him where he was lacking, there were some other spin bowling coaches, they worked with Rishad. So the credit goes equally to the local coach and Mushtaq.”
