Bangladesh players Mohammad Mithun on Tuesday said that handling spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja during the two-match series ranked high on priority.
Recently, it’s India’s pace attack that has grabbed headlines. Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma are expected to be more than a handful during the series. Mithun, though, seemed more wary about the Ashwin-Jadeja axis.
“We all know the strength of their bowling line-up,” Mithun said. “We are working on how to tackle their spinners as it is batting-friendly for the first two days but afterwards, their spinners come into play. We are working on some technical aspects, keeping our focus on how to handle them.”
The Tigers are expecting batting coach Neil McKenzie to help them decode the Indian spinners. “Let the technical things remain inside the dressing room,” Mithun said.
Asked to comment on India’s weakness, The 28-year-old said that he preferred to look at his own strengths than opponent’s weakness.
“We are looking at our strength more than focusing on their weakness because no team could do well against them in their backyard [in the recent past]. We are looking forward to do well here. Obviously it won’t be easy and we need to work really hard,” he said. “The five bowlers they [India] have, we cannot take anyone lightly because everyone is world class.”
Mithun has belief in his young bowling unit that it can take 20 wickets. “Any batsman can get out anytime. If we can bowl as a unit with discipline, I feel we can pick 20 wickets.”
While India are favourites by a distance, Mithun feels that the T20 win in Delhi gives them hope of enjoying a good result. “If we look at the past no one gave us any chance when it comes to beating India in the T20s, and that too in their own backyard.
“But our players had that belief. We are disappointed that we could not win the last game [in Nagpur] despite creating good chances. We are now looking forward to do well in the Test series.”