The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will prepare concrete wickets to help the players deal with the pace and bounce in Australian conditions.
Generally, the wickets of Australia where the T20 World Cup will be held in October-November assist the pacers but Bangladeshi players often find themselves in the miserable situation to deal with genuine pacers.
Keeping that in mind, the team management proposed a plan to practice in two or three concrete wickets.
“Recently from Bangladesh team management we had proposed to prepare two or three concrete wickets,” Cricket Operations manager Shahriar Nafees said here Tuesday .
“When there is rainy season in England, Australia or different countries,they practice on concrete wickets. But we have been seeing our national team practice for several years on marble slabs. It assists batters to deal with express deliveries and good bouncers. So the concrete wickets will help them get good preparation.”
Not only the batters, Shahriar Nafees, the captain of Bangladesh’s inaugural T20 International match against Zimbabwe in 2006, said it will similarly help the bowlers who also struggled on the pacy wicket due to the lack of experience.
“We play 50 per cent matches at home and 50 per cent away. There we see that most of the wickets have pace and bounce. So this concrete wicket is made to replicate that pace bounce. Here the ball will skid, and bounce. So as our batters will practice, similarly, the bowlers will also have the opportunity
to practice on such wickets. The grounds department is making two wickets,” he remarked.
“Normally in Australia, New Zealand and UAE we have also seen wickets being flat. The ball hits the bat beautifully, so it will replicate that. There are also plans to add two Astroturf wickets later, which will match the wickets of the likes of England, South Africa and Zimbabwe.”
