DHAKA, Aug 21, 2019 (BSS)-With Bangladesh’s Test Championship game
approaching fast, one of the most challenging jobs for Russell Domingo
would be to guide the team win Test matches regularly given the fact that the
Tigers often find them vulnerable in the longest format of cricket.
Bangladesh has already established them in the ODI cricket and they have
also attained some success in the T20 format. Though they won some Test
matches at home soil in some designed pitch, their performance in this format
at foreign soil is abysmal.
But the fact is that Bangladesh would have to play more matches in foreign
soil in Test Championship, something which made Domingo’s task more
difficult.
And he at the same time knows how crazy the Bangladeshi fans are to win
the game. He also knows that the Bangladeshi fans would not even spare him in
case of negative result in any format of the cricket. But Domingo is ready to
cope with the pressure, saying that he is confident of making Bangladesh a
force in Test cricket also.
Domingo’s first assignment with Bangladesh cricket however will start with
a one-off Test match against Afghanistan, which is not the part of the Test
Championship game.
Bangladesh will play their first game in Test Championship as they play a
two-match Test series against India on Indian soil.
”I’m sort of used to with that expectation and pressure. So I’m looking
forward to it,” Domingo said here on Wednesday.
“I’ve not been with a team for two years, I’ve been doing South African A
side, and I’m really excited to get going again and work with a lot of people
and work on cricket and think about selection and strategies, because once
you are away from it – it’s been great for me for two years to be away from
it and take a step back – you do miss it.”
As coaches, you thrive in that sort of pressure, you enjoy it. No matter
which team you are coaching, there’s always some sort of pressure to win.
That’s why we do it, because of the pressure if we knew we were going to win
every single game, it’d be the most boring job in the world. The most
enjoyable part of the job is the pressure to win,” the South African said.
Domingo believes Bangladesh lacks in Test cricket due to the fact that they
don’t play it regularly and added that the Test championship is a platform he
would like to use to make a statement in the longer formats.
”It’s hard to get any sort of rhythm in your Test match cricket if you’re
not playing that many Test matches. With the new Test Championship, that
allows a team to focus a lot more on Test match cricket.
We know often Bangladesh play one- or two-Test match series. Hopefully now
there will be three-Test series, four-Test series, which gets them more into
that format. Because so much focus there is on white-ball cricket, with the
Test Championship, a lot of that focus now needs to move away from the World
Cup and the 50-over format into Test match cricket. So it will be a good
start to put a lot more focus and emphasis on our red-ball skills in the next
couple of months,” said Domingo.
”It’s a massive opportunity for Bangladesh to compete regularly in Test
match cricket. Their last Test match was maybe six months ago, we can hardly
remember when it was. The more you play the better you’re going to get in the
format.
“That’s probably where they have been lacking. They haven’t played a lot
of Test match cricket. If you look at England, Australia, India, and weight
those up against the number of Tests Bangladesh have played, you can
understand why they are the leading sides in the world in that format,” he
said, adding that he is looking forward to meet the expectations that he is
bound to have during his stint with Tigers.