'Players need to have mindset of playing 10 days in a row'

The Bangladesh cricketers need to learn the art of how to play the Test cricket with the right frame of mind, the coaching staff said to BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon recently.

While addressing the media today, the BCB boss revealed that the coaches were disappointed to see the players' lack of mindset to play 10 days in a row. 

"The coaches told me that we have to work on it if we want to do well in the Test cricket. Because most of the players don't really have the mindset to play 10 days," he said today. 

The coaches were on leave after the South Africa series. Head coach Russell Domingo, spin coach Rangana Herath, batting consultant Jamie Siddons, and pace bowling coach Alan Donald arrived in Dhaka yesterday. 

As the Test team will leave for Chattogram this evening, the BCB president sat in the meeting in a hurry with them. He also talked to Test captain Mominul Haque at length. 

In the wake of the disastrous Test result against South Africa, Papon sat with the concerned people to know what went wrong indeed. After winning the ODI series for the first time on South African soil, Bangladesh battled neck-to-neck in the first Test before experiencing a collapse on the fourth day afternoon, which caused their defeat. In the second and last Test in Port Elizabeth, they even couldn't pose threat and eventually were whitewashed in the Test series.

The expectation was sky-high in this Test series as Bangladesh entered South Africa with a memorable win against New Zealand. 

"We have discussed a lot about our Test performance. The coaching staff gave me the example of the last four/five Test matches where we were in a good position but couldn't capitalize on. Even the first Test that we played against Pakistan was fairly competitive but we collapsed in the second Test," Papon remarked. 

"This has been the case for quite some time now that we were playing well in the first Test but failed to replicate the performance in the second Test. So we have to come out from this, otherwise, it would be tough to do well in  Test cricket," he added.

The BCB chief said that their sole focus is on now Test cricket as they want to do well in this format.

"We have some elaborate plan to make us a good Test team but due to the  Covid-19 pandemic, we couldn't execute our plan. We are a good ODI team but we are not a good team in Test and T20 cricket. We have to do well in the T20 format also but for the time being focus is on Test cricket. As the Covid-19  situation eased now, we'll try to execute our plan," he informed. 

Papon gave a glimpse of the plan, saying the Test cricketers will work on  their technique and other aspects throughout the year now.

"After this Test series, we are going to West Indies. Those who are in the Test squad will come after the Test series. Then they have no game for about three and a half months. We've been planning to engage them in cricket. They will work on their technique and other aspects and also will rectify the mistakes they had done," the BCB president said.