Hyderabad: Ahead of the third and final T20I against India, Bangladesh fielding coach Nic Pothas feels that they are yet to finalize the best role for all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who can bat at different positions in the middle order and can bowl his quota of four overs in the shortest format.
Mehidy scored an unbeaten 35 in the first T20I in Gwalior after coming to bat No.7, the highest for the side in their total of 127. In the second T20I in New Delhi, he was promoted to No. 5 and played a knock of 16 off 16 balls. He took one wicket in his only over in the series opener while in the next game, he went wicketless in his three overs after giving away 46 runs.
The all-rounder returned to Bangladesh’s T20I for India series after a gap of 14 months following Shakib Al Hasan’s retirement from the format. With Mahmudullah retiring the format after the end of the series, Bangladesh have to designate a specific role for the 26-year-old. Mehidy is highly regarded for his bowling during the Power-play and his capability to deliver powerful hits lower down the batting order.
“It’s very conditions-based and we’re very fortunate to have Miraz because he can bat at the top of the order and he can bat at the middle order and we have seen the progress he has made from a batting point of view,” Pothas told reporters on Friday.
“You know we have tried him at the top with the ball which he has done well in the past. The last game, it can happen, it’s T20. He gives us options because he has three skills which are of a very high quality.
“So at the moment because he wasn’t at the T20 World Cup again we are going to be using him in different positions to actually find a role where he will play for the future. But at the moment we are very fortunate to have an international cricketer of his standing to be able to use wherever we think he fits in for that particular game and conditions,” he added.
Pothas said that the India tour was a learning curve for the team as they found their areas to work on.
“You guys generally go good, bad, win, lose. We have a very different way of looking at things. We played against the best team in the world India. If we measure the pure outcome, there are a lot of countries with bad tours in India. What we have to look at are the learning, we have to look at the future of what we have coming up with the Champions Trophy, T20s and we have to look at the end of some of the legends that are finishing for Bangladesh.
“We look at the tour in a very different way. We always enter the game to win, we have to do that cause that’s the nature of the sport at the international level. We are very fortunate to be touring India because we can get a lot of learning done. The learning has to be honest and what learning does when you play here is it drives you on. India lets you know where you have to improve. So you have to be very eyes open when you come to India,” he said.
With an unassailable 2-0 lead, the defending T20I champions India will eye for a series sweep at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday.
–IANS