Agency :
Bangladesh Head Coach Chandika Hathurusingha considered Soumya Sarkar as an alternative to Shakib al Hasan in the Bangladesh tour New Zealand for his all-round abilities but the Coach was disappointed with his performance in the first ODI.
Soumya who opened the inning was gone for naught and his bowling figure was disappointing as well when he remained wicketless conceding 63 runs in his six overs.
“I have not seen Soumya’s game in the last 5 matches, I don’t really know what happened.
I only saw the last match.
I don’t know what is Soumya’s problem.
He was scoring a lot of runs in domestic cricket.
And we needed someone who could do both bowling and batting, as Shakib is not there,’ said Hathurusingha.
Shakib suffered a finger injury during the World Cup which opened the door for Soumya to return to the national team fold and his previous experience in New Zealand also lured him to squad.
“Shakib has been playing for 17 years, we are looking for someone like Shakib.
This is why Soumya’s presence in the XI was important. What Shakib can do, Soumya can’t, we want him to bat and bowl properly.
We think of him as an all-rounder who can contribute to the team,” he said.
Hathurusingha emphasized why Rishad Hossain was not picked in the first ODi despite an all-round performance in the warm-up match where he scored 87 runs and took three wickets.
“We wanted Rishad in the team in the first match. But since our results are not good here and we see our wickets falling early, we have taken an extra batsman in the XI.
But we definitely want a leg-spinner like Rishad in the team in the future,” he added.
