Middle overs have been one of our Achilles’ heels: Simmons

Bangladesh team head coach Phil Simmons said on Monday that he will be “stressing a lot” on how batters perform during the middle phase of the One Day International innings.

Bangladesh will take on Pakistan on 11 March at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in the opening match of a three-ODI series.

The second and third matches will also be held at the same venue on 13 March and 15 March, respectively.

Ahead of the series, Bangladesh are concentrating on their middle-order batting, an area in which the host nation has struggled for some time.

“Well, the middle overs, yes, we’ve not been as good as we want to be. So, I said just now that's one of the areas that we're going to be stressing a lot—how many runs, how many singles, how many boundaries we get in those overs. It's an important part of the 50-over game,” Simmons said.

To reinforce the middle phase of the innings, Bangladesh has brought back Litton Kumar Das and Afif Hossain Dhrubo.

It was learned that Litton will bat at number five, while Afif may take the number six position.

“Well, first of all, to keep 50 overs and then come and open the batting is very difficult. Also, he’s one of our better players against spin bowling. So, that would help down in the middle, and as I said, the middle has been one of our Achilles’ heels. With his experience and skills, hopefully we can get what we need there,” Simmons said on Litton’s potential as a number five batter in ODIs.

“Yeah, he's been comfortable batting anywhere. I think now he's a lot more relaxed with his game and sees it as an opportunity to do what the team needs of him,” he added.

Litton, however, has been most successful as a 50-over top-order batter, scoring all five of his ODI centuries while opening the innings.

Simmons said the team did not need to convince Litton to bat down the order for the team’s cause.

“The thing is, we didn't have to convince Litton of anything. We asked, ‘This is what the team needs,’ and he was happy to do it. He is always willing to do anything for the team—when he was captain, and now as a senior player, he's happy to do it for us. So, we didn't have to convince him of anything,” he said.