Nic Pothas, a former batter for South Africa, has been assigned to the position of assistant coach of Bangladesh and deputy to the team’s head coach Chandika Hathurusingha. While Hathurusingha is currently on vacation, Pothas has been in charge of the Tigers’ training camp. During his first engagement with the media, he made a joke about possessing a magic wand that could solve all of the problems with test batting.
In terms of Bangladesh cricket, it is still very early days for Pothas. The most recent test match between these two teams ended in controversy due to Afghanistan’s decisive victory against Bangladesh by a large margin of 224 runs. Pothas was not aware of the way things operate in the media in this country, which is surprising given the high expectations placed on the current group of foreign coaches.
He joked around, which gave the impression that he was trying to lessen the weight of an intriguing inquiry from the media. The Bangladesh A team is now playing West Indies A in a four-day game, and during one of the breaks, the topic of Bangladesh’s test performance shortcomings and what Pothas may bring to the table was discussed.
During yesterday’s news conference, he was asked how he would go about implementing changes to the structure, and his response was, “I have a magic wand.” I will simply wave the magic wand over the situation. We will have batters ready in a very short time.”
He continued by explaining that he was kidding about it. “I am kidding. These tasks require some amount of time. It is not possible for me to enter a new culture and immediately begin making radical changes. I am required to keep an eye on the batters for a while,” he went on to say.
The other day, when remarking about the A side’s unsuccessful batting performance, the selector Habibul Bashar looked to be at a loss for words. Pothas summed it up rather accurately when he said that he need some amount of time to become familiar with the participants and that he believed countries may experience alternating periods of success and failure.
“The thrill comes from figuring out how to solve the challenge. Before you can play the spinners, you have to deal with the seamers first. We are unable to give [Afghanistan’s] spin our complete attention, and before we know it, we find ourselves five wickets down against seam. We are going to conduct the necessary study and analysis. In his opinion, test matches are quite similar to games of chess.
Given that Mominul Haque and youngster Mahmudul Hasan of the A side both got out to deliveries on their pads during the third day of the four-day match that is now being played in Sylhet, it would be simpler to say than it would be to do. During the current camp, Pothas has been working with both red-ball and white-ball players. However, in general, Tigers suffer the most during Tests, so his work will be more important moving ahead.
Given Bangladesh’s overall performance in test cricket as well as Bangladesh A’s present troubles against West Indies A, Afghanistan will be a challenging opponent for Bangladesh. The spin problem, along with players’ inconsistent participation in red-ball forms, implies that the Tigers could require a magic wand in order to improve upon their Test record while playing at home against Afghanistan.