Anamul Haque has been known to neglect singles and stagnate in ODIs, but he defended his method saying it suited the role he played for Bangladesh
Mohammad Isam13-Jan-2015During the press conference in Mirpur on Tuesday, Anamul Haque’s face tightened when he was asked how he would stop “wasting” deliveries and raise his strike-rate of 70.84. With the World Cup only a few weeks away, the batsman remained defiant and said it was unlikely he would change his batting and mental approach and added that it suited the role he played in the team.”Even if I am wasting balls, my team’s score crosses the 250-mark when I am in the middle,” Anamul said. “It is important for me to stay at the wicket, so I will try to do exactly that.”The work for the top-order batsmen is tough against the new ball. I feel that it is most important for me to pass the situation. I think this can be made better in training. I am working hard and I will try to be at ease in conditions in Australia, improve myself as much as possible.”Anamul’s reliance on boundaries – nearly 39% of his ODI runs have come in singles – has been widely observed and the dot balls and lack of singles have been known to slow him down. He has often looked to make up for it in the period immediately after reaching a milestone, such as a fifty or a hundred.In the recent series against Zimbabwe, Anamul scored 47% of his runs (94 out of 200) in singles. He made two fifties and, in both innings, he started slowly but his personal strike-rate improved after he got into a groove and struck boundaries.Two of Anamul’s three ODI hundreds came in 2014, against Pakistan and West Indies and he is riding on that confidence. During the course of the press conference, he was also asked if he has passed on his knowledge of Australian conditions, having played there in the Under-19 World Cup in 2012 and how Bangladesh would deal with the short ball, a recurring theme in the side’s press conferences over the last few months.Anamul said the Bangladesh team is using a couple of specially-made granite slabs to impersonate a skiddy and bouncy surface. “The wickets skid a little, the ball comes quickly to the bat. This is why we have these granite slabs. We are trying to get used to that condition of the pitch. We are also working on playing the square cut and pull shot better.”Anamul can take some of his confidence from his first tour of Australia, where he finished as the highest scorer in the 2012 Under-19 World Cup with 365 runs in six matches at an average of 60.83. On his second visit, Anamul said he wants to present his talent to the wider world, just like any young batsman would in the senior World Cup. According to Anamul, the 5-0 series win against Zimbabwe has also given the side a lift before the tournament.”We got a lot of confidence out of the Zimbabwe series so now I can think of presenting myself in a big way in the World Cup,” he said. “I have goals to score big runs, take my team to the second round. But I haven’t really thought about becoming the highest scorer.”
