Photo: Firoz Ahmed
Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha credited his team for overcoming the mental barrier that the Tigers have often faced when showing the willingness to play on tracks that are green and offer help for the pacers at home.
Bangladesh crushed Afghanistan by a record 546 runs in the one-off Test played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
The Tigers included three pacers in their lineup and the fast-bowling trio of Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, and Ebadot Hossain scalped 14 wickets amongst them as they disallowed any kind of Afghan resistance.
The 54-year-old acknowledged the sentiments around the mammoth victory that he deemed as being ‘more than just a Test win’ and praised the mentality his camp had about playing on such wickets which is a far cry from what is usually offered in Mirpur.
“I don’t know if you have seen it but I’ve written on social media that it is more than a Test win. What I meant was, the way we prepared for this game is something we haven’t done before. If we think about the way we prepared the wicket which was fast and green, I think that it was a big win for us; To play on that type of a wicket and then come away with flying colours which is a big mental barrier that we broke because, before the game, I felt a lot of people had doubts about the way we would go and even we played in a way that we normally don’t play, we had a different strength.,” Hathurusingha told the reporters on Sunday.
“Gamini, the curator is also to be given credit for preparing that kind of a wicket. So I think it’s more than just a Test win,” he added.
