My job is half done because the class of players is already there

Former Bangladesh head coach and currently the batting coach Jamie Siddons is very impressed with the talent that the Bangladeshi players, especially the youngsters, possess. Having said that, the Australian remarked that the Tigers have to improve a lot when it comes to performing overseas.

“My job is half done because the class of players is already there,” said Siddons. “When we go against South Africa, Australia and India, they have four of those. They got three quality spinners coming at them too, so there’s no respite. There’s no easy runs. That’s where we will be challenged. That’s where we have to be improved, and be ready for it in their conditions,” he said.

“We have got a long way to go to get to that point, but we are a really good cricket team. We need to continue to do that. The young players just need to take that extra step so that they perform overseas all the time,” Siddons added.

Siddons stated that the abundance of talent has taken the pressure off him and heaped praise on the likes of Liton Das.

“I think the pressure is almost taken off me already, seeing the talent. They are already capable of performing in big matches. People like Liton have done it in Test matches. I see little things I can help him with. It is going to take time to put that last bit of class on him where he can succeed against every bowler, whether really fast bowlers or great spinners, in the world. It is my challenge, to make him a little bit better,” he mentioned.

There are two major ICC events in the next couple of years - the T20 World Cup in Australia this year and the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2023 in India. The batting coach said that he and the team will focus on the shortest format for now.

“T20s are the focus, because it is the next World Cup but we are also preparing for a lot of games. If we can be good T20 players by October and November, we can be a much better one-day team at the end of the day in India. We know we have to make big scores in India to win or play well in the World Cup. We can’t get away with 260-270. We will need 320,” he explained. 

Tamim Iqbal got out to Fazalhaq Farooqi in the same fashion in the last two matches as his front foot went too far across and the southpaw was trapped in front. Siddons said that if Tamim can solve this problem, it will be difficult to get Tamim out.

“For me a lot of it is footwork. Tamim wants to straighten up his front foot. It won’t happen really quickly, but we are talking about long-term. If he is going to play for the next three or four years, he has to straighten his front foot up a bit. He will have a lot more success. If he doesn’t get out lbw, they will find it very hard to get him out. He will make a lot of runs. I can see his best cricket is still ahead of him,” Siddons said.

“We have to remember that Tamim, Shakib [Al Hasan], Mushfiqur [Rahim] and [Mahmudullah] Riyad were all inconsistent when they started. We could have dropped them at any stage of their career. If Shakib wasn’t a good bowler, he would have been dropped as a batsman a lot of times before he started to succeed. But he held it together because he was a good potential batsman,” the Australian said when asked about the consistency of the younger players.

“We have got some potential superstars here. We give them time, pick the right ones and nurture them. We should give them opportunities without putting too much pressure on them. I have no doubt that they will be the new Shakibs and Tamims,” he said.

In T20Is, Bangladesh are one of the slowest scorers in the powerplay and also don’t have the firepower to finish strongly. Regarding that, Siddons said, “We are looking to get better at our starts, our powerplays in T20s, and definitely finishing a bit better than we do. We didn’t do that great the other day.”