Hasan Mahmud: Success story of a national program

“Hasan Mahmud seems to have picked up where he left off on the tour against Pakistan”

Former Bangladesh star and now commentator Athar Ali Khan exclaimed when Mahmud took Virat Kohli out on the first morning in Chennai. Mahmud bowled a devastating opening spell of six overs that included the wickets of Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill.

After lunch, right-arm fast bowler Rishabh Pant took off the field to justify – to some extent – ​​Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto’s decision to bowl first on Thursday.

Mahmud is the slowest of the three pacers that Bangladesh fielded in the opening Test. He began his Test career earlier this year with the home series in Sri Lanka and is best known for his skills with the white ball.

Recently, Bangladesh pace bowling coach Andre Adams told Cricbuzz that local coaches should be credited for helping Hasan shine in red-ball cricket. He was included in the Bangladesh Tigers programme ahead of the Test series against Pakistan to help him develop his skills in the longest format.

Bangladesh Tigers head coach Sohel Islam told Cricbuzz on Thursday that the biggest challenge they face is to change their mindset.

“I think we focused on changing his mindset because in white-ball cricket, sometimes you have to play defensively to make sure you don’t concede runs, but that’s not the case in longer varieties of cricket and he had to understand that,” Sohel said. “We had to make sure he could bowl long balls. We designed his training accordingly,” he said.

“The line varies in different formats. We have worked with him and made him realise that he needs to make sure he bowls fuller more often as he can swing the ball and can be dangerous if he manages to bowl in the right areas. He executed the plan pretty well in Pakistan and seems to be doing the same against India today,” he said.

Mahmud bowled consistently with a good length and was rewarded with Rohit’s wicket, who bowled a full ball with a wobble seam. He was lucky with Gill’s wicket when the No. 3 batsman bowled a ball on the leg side. Kohli fended off a ball bowled outside the off-stump while Rishabh Pant bowled a cut shot to Litton Das behind the stumps.

Hasan attributed the rise to his experience in first-class cricket.

“I have tried hard in our first-class tournaments, which is helping me now when I play Test cricket. It is obviously great to take Test wickets. I took five wickets against Pakistan, so it was about trying to be consistent and contribute to the team,” Hasan said in the post-match press conference.

“The plan for today was quite simple. I tried to shape the ball with the seam up. I kept trying and (it paid off). After the morning session, which we dominated, the wicket settled down. The ball came on the bat well. Still, I got some movement later. Maybe we can create more chances tomorrow,” he said.

“The momentum has shifted today but we could bring them back tomorrow with better bowling. If we get breakthroughs tomorrow morning, we will be back in the game. We want to keep them under 400 runs. It is a good wicket now though,” Mahmud added.

Hasan added that the conditions were similar to those in Pakistan and they were trying to adapt with the SG balls, although they were not ready to use that as an excuse.

Hasan felt that the conditions in India were similar to those in Pakistan, but said that the bowlers also had to get used to bowling with SG balls.

“Although we play with three types of balls (Kookaburra at home, Dukes in Pakistan, SG in India), the place where we place the ball is the same. We try to concentrate on whatever type of ball we get during training sessions. The seam of Kookaburra is wider than that of SG. We try to adjust to that,” he said.