Bangla coach defends decision to drop Rubel

Fatullah, June 11
Even after failing to take a single wicket on Day One, Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha defended the team management’s decision of not including pacer Rubel Hossain in the playing XI on the pretext of keeping him fit for the ODIs.
Bangladesh’s bowling attack consisted of four specialist spinners in Shakib Al Hasan, Taijul Islam, Jubair Hossain and Shuvagata Hom. “Rubel’s thing is that he is coming after an injury and is not hundred per cent. The other reason is that this wicket, we thought that if Rubel has to play and has to bowl a lot then there is a chance of a recurrence of his injury because he didn’t get a chance to play practice matches,” the coach said at the end of first day’s play.
“Not that he is not fit, he is not fit to bowl on this kind of a wicket because you need a lot of effort to bowl on this kind of a wicket to be successful. If the wicket was helping fast bowlers, we could have gone in a different way.”
Hathurusingha insisted that it was better to preserve Rubel for the three-match ODI series rather than playing him on this kind of a pitch. “The reason to pick the spinners is again because of the condition of the wicket. The other thing is having a variety of spinners taking the Indian team’s history for last few series. A few off spinners have been successful against them. We cannot control the Indian strength, what we can control is what we do with our resources. Rubel, we are keeping him for the ODIs. It is very crucial for us to win the ODIs, knowing that if we win at least one game, we have a chance of qualifying for the Champions Trophy. So if the condition was different, we would have played another seamer,” Hathurusingha explained.
The Sri Lankan clarified that the team was picked after looking at the wicket.
“The plan was to pick the team we thought was good for the wicket and according to our strength. I think we created enough chances, but a few things didn’t go our way.”