Russell Domingo: 'Bangladesh need players who are hungry for Tests, can guts it out for five days'
"Test cricket is the No. 1 format, but trying to get the players to understand that is the biggest thing"
We know it's going to be a tough tour; New Zealand are playing really good cricket at the moment. From the year that I have been here [with Bangladesh] now, 50-overs cricket is a format that a lot of our players seem to enjoy and pride themselves on. We are looking forward to a very competitive series.
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'Didn't think it would turn out like this' - Shakib
We haven't played a lot of one-day cricket without Shakib (Al Hasan), so trying to find that allrounder to balance the team is crucially important. (Mehidy Hasan) Miraz has shown that he can do it in Tests, but we need to find some allrounders who can give us more options. The second area is our finishing of games with the lower-middle order, trying to establish a power-hitter in the back-end, giving someone the responsibility of finishing games. It is something that we want to develop over the next couple of months.
"If the player is not all in it, and there are other opportunities at this stage of his career, it is very hard to judge him on making those decisions"On Shakib Al Hasan prioritising the IPL over national duty
He still has a lot of work to do, especially on his batting. He is still a bit inconsistent with the way he strikes the ball. He is coming off quite a few injuries too. We would like him to get his pace up by another five or six kph or so. I know that's something that Ottis (Gibson, the bowling coach) also feels. If he can bowl consistently at 132-134kph, that's where we need him to be. He is a very good package for us in white-ball cricket, but he is still not the finished product as far as I am concerned.
Absolutely. We definitely feel that we are going in with good fast bowlers like Taskin (Ahmed), Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur (Rahman) and Saifuddin; Shoriful (Islam) brings good pace into our attack. We want to play an aggressive brand of cricket there with our fast bowlers. I suppose in the past Bangladesh have relied heavily on spinners on away tours as well. We are going to try to change that. We will try to strike with the new ball and strike in the middle of the innings with pace, not just with spin. Those are the types of challenge Tamim is going to face, to get the team moving in that direction and not become spin-dominant in the middle of the innings and also be able to get his fast bowlers to get those big breakthroughs that we need to happen.
I have been very happy with the way the one-dayers and T20s have gone. To win a T20 in India and push them close in the third T20, we probably should have won that game. We have won six ODIs in a row. We have won six of our last T20 games, which is a good return. In terms of white-ball cricket, the team is definitely moving in the right direction.
Everyone was very disappointed with the performance. We know in the first Test we dominated for four days and made some bad decisions on day five. We didn't play well at all in the second Test. The coaches are hurt by the way the Test series went. But that's the nature of international sport. We have an opportunity now to rectify that in New Zealand, and do something no Bangladesh side has done before in New Zealand, and that's winning the series. We will try our utmost to do it. It is going to be a tough ask.
Mominul has a lot to learn as captain but his heart is in the right place. He is fully focused on the team. He wants to lead the team from the front. It is a new experience for him. He is going to get better. We support, guide, and advise him as much as we possibly can. But he also has to find his own way of captaincy, which he is still trying to establish.
It is a tough one. As a coach, I would always want Shakib available in the side. On the other side of things, if the player is not all in it, and there are other opportunities at this stage of his career, it is very hard to judge him on making those decisions. I think it is the decision he has to make. He can take opinions from various quarters but it is Shakib's decision. As coaches, we have to respect his decision. It is his career and livelihood, so it is not for us to make those judgements.
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo's Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84