DHAKA,– Young opener Shadman Islam vowed to fill the gap of Tamim Iqbal at the top of the batting order in the upcoming one-off Test match against Afghanistan by playing his natural game.
After a prolonged bad patch with willow, Tamim Iqbal took a break from the cricket, leaving Shadman who played only three Test matches to take the bulk of the responsibility.
While Shadman is all set to become the No. 1 Test opener, the selectors are still pondering as to who would accompany him in opening position.
However while the responsibility is bigger for the 24-year old, he said that he is unfazed by the challenge and would play his natural game.
“I will try to play my natural game. I did not think anything extra. I will play like I play in first-class matches or with A team. That’s it,” Shadman said here on Thursday, when his attention was drawn to how he would respond in absence of Tamim Iqbal.
Shadman played a superb 76-run knock in his debut Test against West Indies last year after which he went through without any fifty in his last four innings even though he got good start in every innings.
This time when Tamim is not in the side, Shadman knows he would have to prolong his innings in a bid to give the side solidity.
“I always try to play big innings and that will be the case this time around also,” he said.
One of the biggest challenges would be for the young opener to deal with the Afghan spinners that included the likes of Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Zahir Khan and other.
Because Bangladesh are believed to prepare a spin-friendly track in Chittagong, Afghan spinners threat is much talked-about.
Even though Shadman was unfazed by the Afghan spin-trio threat, he said he is preparing well to negotiate them.
“I have been practicing because I know Afghanistan has good spin attack. I always work on pace bowling but their spinners like Rashid Khan, Nabi, they are good spinners with good variations. So I’m working on how to deal with them successfully,” he said.
Shadman also said that game sense is the key to handle the Afghan spinners in the Test cricket.
“We can leave the ball outside of the off stump even against spin. I don’t think they will be a threat because we are used to play against high standard spinners in our domestic cricket. In International cricket, we know we have to face good spinners but if you can apply yourselves well, you can handle any bowlers.”
The confidence that Shadman derived is from his performance in the recent four-day matches in India and he said his regular four-day stint kept him in good stead.
“We had played lot of four-day matches, considering that we have World Test Championship coming. In this period we played four-day matches and there is no thinking about one-day cricket. So mentally we are in good stead. We have played some four-day matches in India. That was good for us,” he remarked.
The young opener believes that good result against Afghanistan will give them confidence ahead of their first World Test championship match against India.
“We normally play few Test matches. But we have lots of Test matches ahead. If we play well our ranking will be improved. So it will be very good for us.”
