Shanto, however, didn’t want to spend too much time thinking about that performance, saying the team had spent enough time in Darwin to understand the conditions.
“[Tackling] the bounce is the key but we have been preparing on bouncy wickets at home in the last few months,” Shanto said at the pre-match press interaction. “That gives us a little bit more of an idea. Here, there will be bounce, and we are well prepared having arrived 10 or 12 days before the Test. It gives us more idea regarding the bounce. They have a world-class bowling attack, but as a team, it is a good opportunity to challenge them. We have had [poor outings] in practice matches before. This came in the preparation phase. We can have a bad day, but I think we have prepared ourselves pretty well.
“We are confident that we will play some good cricket. As a batting unit, there will be a lot of challenges, and we have been trying to do a lot of work. I think the challenge will be greater against the new ball. I think everyone will play their natural game, try to score runs. We are playing against a top bowling attack. It is important how much consistency and focus we can have. We have to try to bat for longer periods.”
It’s not all doom and gloom for Bangladesh. They have had a good few months at home since March this year, particularly the 2-1 ODI series win against Australia, where the matches were played on faster pitches than usual in Bangladesh.
“We want to play till the fifth day, take it session by session. There will always be discussion about whether we can take it to the fifth day.”
Najmul Hossain Shanto
“The win against Australia in the ODI series in June gives us a lot of confidence. It was the first time we beat them in a series. We played on good wickets, so that gives us a little bit more confidence,” Shanto said. “Obviously, if you look at the last two or three years, we are going well in Test cricket. We have improved as a team. We finished seventh in the last cycle, but we are in fourth place 1786642973. We still have eight Test matches left in our schedule. I think gradually we have improved our game as a team. As a bowling unit, we have been doing a great job. If we just improve our batting a little bit more, it will be a great team going forward.”
“It looks like a pretty good wicket. We haven’t had a chance to play on a drop-in wicket, but as professional cricketers, we have to adapt to those challenges,” Shanto said. “As I mentioned, the preparation is there, so I hope we can adjust to this condition. There’s grass on the wicket, but it’s a good wicket where both batters and bowlers will find help. Maybe the bowlers will [get us good results].”
“We want to play till the fifth day, take it session by session,” Shanto said. “There will always be discussion about whether we can take it to the fifth day. As players we want to take it to the fifth day.”
