GUWAHATI: Hasan Mahmud has won a lot of accolades alongside his captain Litton Das when the duo recalled New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi after running him out at the non-striker’s end for leaving the crease early last Saturday.
In return Sodhi hugged Mahmud to give the spectators a lovely sight of the spirit of the game. However, Mahmud’s own senior teammates and Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) are mired into controversy after their all-time leading run scorer Tamim Iqbal was left out of the World Cup squad.
Ahead of Bangladesh’s first warmup match of the ODI World Cup against Sri Lanka on Friday, the 23-year-old right-arm pacer was seen bowling his heart out at the nets. Asked if the recent controversy around Tamim’s exclusion would have any impact on the their performance, Mahmud said — on the sidelines of a Bangladesh practice session at Barsapara Cricket Stadium — on a hot and humid Thursday evening, “I think we don’t think much about what goes out or comes in from outside of the team. We just follow our routine and do our practice sessions to the best of our abilities for better performances. From my side I didn’t think much about it because I am here to play my role, that’s all.”
For a young pacer like him to have the South African great Alan Donald as the bowling coach is probably the best thing to happen. “It’s been great to have someone like him with us. He has been very helpful. We (pacers) mainly discuss how to bowl better in the early overs as well as the death overs. He shares his experiences with us and that’s wonderful,” said an elated Mahmud.
Mahmud is also excited about the prospect of sharing the new ball with experienced partners like Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman.
“We have been doing well as a pace bowling unit over the past one year or so. Taskin and Mustafiz have done well for our country. Mustafiz has played a lot of IPL games so he has vast experience of playing in India. As a junior, new guy, it’s quite impressive with them. So I will try to do my best in whatever chances I get this World Cup,” Mahmud said during a brief interaction before joining back his teammates in training.
