Siddons lashes out at batters after batting debacle

Bangladesh batting coach Jamie Siddons came down heavily on the batters following their yet another pretty ordinary batting show on the opening day of the second cricket Test against India, stating that the irresponsible batting keeps hindering the side's progress in the longer format.

"It has been 6-7 months. We talk about it a lot. We practice a lot. But when the batter is in the middle, only one person can play the shot for them," a visibly upset Siddons said after Bangladesh was dismissed for 227 on an otherwise good batting track against India in their first innings.

"If they can do it to get 28, they have to keep doing it for another 28. We seem to change our game, go up a gear. Shakib walks down the wicket, Litton tries to hit one a little bit harder, Mehidy plays a rash shot. They walk off shaking their head, (thinking) 'why did I do that?' but they have to take that responsibility. They have to stay in the same gear for six hours. We talk about batting till the end of the day and punching gloves and walking off with your teammate. Not getting a flashy 28 or 30. It keeps happening."

"I work on technical and mental issues. Apart from one or two, I don't think any of them were technical. They decided to walk down the wicket or hit the ball in the air. It is hard for me to correct that in an instant," Siddons went on to say.

What irked Siddons most was that the batters gave fast bowler Umesh Yadav four wickets when there was nothing on offer for the pacers in this wicket.

Another India pacer Jaydev Unadkat who played his first Test after 12 years also took two wickets to share the spoil. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin claimed the rest of the four wickets as India dominated the day's proceeding despite Bangladesh opted to bat first on a good surface.

"It is very frustrating. We work hard. We talk about when you're in, you need to stay in. You have to make sure of a big score when you get a start. It was a little bit like Ctg, three or four guys getting twenties. Other guys getting 15s and 16s, and only one guy doing the job for us," Siddons remarked.

"We are not getting match-winning scores doing that. People made mental errors again when they were set. The ball was spinning but the pace bowlers weren't getting off a great deal. To let Umesh get four wickets was very disappointing."

Only Mominul Haque did a job for Bangladesh, hitting a brilliant 84, which propelled the side past 200. But Mominul was dropped in the first Test in Chattogram, a venue where his record was envious. Bangladesh also experienced a collapse in the Chattogram Test and now the talks were going round as to why Mominul was dropped in that Test.

"It is the selectors' decision, but Mominul didn't score over 10 runs in the four innings for Bangladesh A. We gave him a rest," Siddons explained.

"We had to work on a few things in Chattogram. We gave him a bit of time to get back into the swing of things, and forget about those failures. Get ready to play again. Our No 3 spot is a worry, so we put him in. It worked really well today. He played fantastic."

Captain Shakib Al Hasan played at crucial No. 4 position even though he was used to bat lower down the order. However he too got a good start but played a rash shot to be dismissed like Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim and others.

"It is disappointing as senior players are making mental errors. He (Shakib) was walking down the wicket to spinners and pace bowlers anyway, just to change their lengths. He was worried by their lengths, so he tried to change it. Straight after lunch, the bowler is also going to be rusty. He could have got some bad bowling if he stayed in the crease. It was his decision. It was frustrating for me to watch players make those mistakes," Siddons made his frustration clear about Shakib's dismissal.

"It was more Shakib wanting to go in there. He feels like he is in form. He wanted to push everyone else down and lengthen our batting order. We wanted to stop the quick wickets. I think it is good that the captain thinks like that. It didn't work for us though."