Convert those starts: Hemp wants Bangladesh batters to score big in second Test vs West Indies

New Delhi, Nov 26 (IANS) Former Bangladesh batting coach David Hemp opined that the batters need to convert their starts to big knocks after a poor show in the second innings of the opening Test against West Indies in Antigua. Bangladesh were reeling at 109/7 at stumps on Day Four while chasing 334. West Indies are just three wickets away from taking a 1-0 lead in the two-Test series.

The hosts declared their first innings for 450 runs on the back of contributions from Mikyle Louis (97) and Alick Athanaze (97) along with Justin Greaves’ maiden Test hundred. In response, Bangladesh declared at 269/9 with neither Mominul Haque (50) nor Liton Kumar Das (40) or Jaker Ali (50) could make a big hundred. Taskin Ahmed bagged six scalps to bundle out the hosts for a paltry 152 in the second innings but Bangladesh batters lost the plot after failing to better their first-innings performance.

“That’s a part of batting as well (converting the 50s into 100s). Getting a start, and once you get a start convert those starts. So that’s another part of batting. As a batter you want to score runs and to do that you gotta get in and once you get yourself go on for as long as you possibly can,” Cricbuzz quoted Hemp, who was recently succeeded by Mohammad Salahuddin as the batting coach of Bangladesh, as saying.

“I just think it’s an ongoing process as I previously said, from my time going back six months ago. It’s an ongoing process, there’s no quick fix. I’m not there in the West Indies now so I don’t know what’s going on there. You ask what’s the problem, it goes back to decision making and that doesn’t change. It’s a continuous thing.

“Australia have been going through the same, they have just been knocked over, and now they are looking at what happened and what they need to do. So we are just going to keep doing the same thing and keep preparing to play and perform,” he added.

Meanwhile, the former cricketer was impressed with Jaker Ali’s approach to become the team’s mainstay in the red-ball format.

“That’s a role he (Jaker Ali) certainly seems to be enjoying. He is contributing. That’s all you can ask – putting performances in the game. And certainly, he seems to be adjusting well to the opportunities and taken the opportunities that have been given,” Hemp said about Jaker, who scored two fifties in two Test matches.

The former coach said that youngsters should make the most of the opportunity in the absence of senior players including Mushfiqur Rahim and Najmul Hossain Shanto in the ongoing Test series due to their respective injuries.

“The experience obviously helps, but at the end of the day, the experienced players are injured and you have to provide the opportunity to someone else and you have to play with what you got,” said Hemp.

“These players have been given the opportunity and responsibility because I’m sure the selectors think they can perform. But any team around the world when you lose an experienced player goes through a similar thing. You just gotta make the most of the opportunity and it gives the selectors to see someone new,” he added.

–IANS

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