Salahuddin praises Shadman, credits Ashraful for batting progress

Bangladesh interim batting coach Mohammad Salahuddin has praised Shadman Islam for his composed batting on the opening day of the Mirpur Test, while crediting former batting coach Mohammad Ashraful for the recent improvement in the team’s batting.

Bangladesh finished the first day of the Test against West Indies on 213-3, with left-handed opener Shadman unbeaten on 99.

“He understood the wicket very well. He did not play too many shots throughout the innings. He negotiated the difficult periods and batted within his control,” Salahuddin said at the end of the day’s play.

Shadman has often made starts of 50 or 60 in the past but struggled to convert them into bigger scores. Salahuddin believes the opener has made progress in that regard.

“Recently, he was not able to play long innings. It seems he is working on himself,” he said.

The entire Bangladesh camp was waiting for Shadman to reach his century, with the opener ending the day just one run short. Salahuddin hopes the innings will help him in the future.

“We were all nervous. We all wanted him to get the century. He should have had more hundreds in Test cricket. This innings will help him a lot going forward,” the coach said.

Ashraful was removed from the batting coach’s role following the team’s disappointing performance in the ODI series during their tour of the United Arab Emirates. Salahuddin, head coach of the High Performance (HP) programme, was appointed interim batting coach just three days before the start of the Test series against West Indies.

Bangladesh have won five of their last eight Tests, including a 2-0 home series triumph over Pakistan and a Test victory against Australia in Darwin. Highlighting the batters’ contribution to those results, Salahuddin said Ashraful deserved much of the credit.

“Ashraful was here for a year. He worked a lot with the batters. Perhaps the results came at times and did not at others, but he put in a lot of work. We have not had much time either. There is not much we need to change here. I think all the credit goes to Ashraful,” he said.

Salahuddin also underlined Ashraful’s role in preparing the batters mentally.

“If he helped the batters even a little mentally, or helped them in a bigger way, then he deserves the credit,” he added.

Meanwhile, Salahuddin is not overly concerned about Towhid Hridoy’s physical discomfort and expects the batter to return to the crease on the second day after recovering from a cramp.

“Hridoy was suffering from a cramp. I think if he gets half an hour or an hour, he will recover. I expect him to bat again tomorrow (the second day),” Salahuddin concluded.