SPORTS REPORTER

It was already evening at Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, but that did not deter the national team stars as their practice continued under lights, with head coach Phil Simmons also present. The aim of the skill camp, which ended yesterday, was to place a sharp focus on the development of a few players in specific areas, while others were participating in the recently-concluded National Cricket League (NCL) or were on vacation.

Tanzid Tamim, Parvez Hossain Emon, and Saif Hassan had been regularly undergoing sessions with Simmons, senior assistant coach Mohammad Salahuddin, and batting coach Mohammad Ashraful. Ground shots and effective shot selection during the Powerplay had been on the agenda for the openers over the past week. Yesterday, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Shamim Hossain, and Jaker Ali Anik joined the rest of the batters during the afternoon session.

Simmons is expected to leave the country on Monday to spend time with his family, while the players will undergo a short break before the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) practice sessions begin.

Yesterday, handling short deliveries was also on the agenda. One by one, Sohan, Shamim, and Jaker were tested with short balls, with the task being to clear the in-field and hit the ball into the target zones not manned by fielders. Slashes and slogs against short deliveries were prevalent.

Later, spin trials were set up, during which the batters were challenged to drive through the off side along the ground.

For Sohan, it was a rare opportunity to work on his game in a more specific manner ahead of important assignments such as the BPL, followed by the ICC T20 World Cup.

“Over the last few years, the international and domestic schedules have been very busy, so we didn’t really get the opportunity to have camps like this,” Sohan said while attending the Rangpur Riders-Bangladesh Sports Journalists Association (BSJA) Media Cup event. “But the seven or eight days we have spent in this camp will definitely help us because we finally got time to work on our skills.”

Sohan has looked largely out of form in his last few national team assignments. He made scores of five and one in the West Indies T20I series, and in his only appearance in the Ireland series, he scored one.

He felt that the practice sessions were different this time, as the focus was placed more acutely on individual shortcomings.

“Look, in a specific sense, this was quite different. We are usually accustomed to practising together or doing things collectively. But here, you can see that the work is being done in specific groups, sometimes focusing on one or two individuals. So I feel this is a bit different. And the batsmen are also getting the opportunity to work on certain specific aspects of their game,” he explained.

The focus was not just on the basics of the game but on sharpening specific skills, as was evident throughout the camp. Sohan noted that ahead of upcoming assignments, the camp allowed players to focus on areas where improvement was still possible.

“There is a gap before the BPL, but once the BPL starts, the World Cup comes almost immediately. After that, everyone will be busy playing matches. This camp has allowed players to focus on areas where they can still improve,” he concluded.