Fast bowler Ebadot Hossain is keen to learn the art of setting up roaring, knowing that it's the only way to claim wickets regularly in the longer version format where grabbing cheap wickets is almost difficult.
In Test cricket, batters tend to be stubborn, prompting the bowlers to be more innovative to get the wicket or earn a breakthrough, Ebadot said.
He scalped four wickets for 47 runs today to help Bangladesh bounce back into the match before Najmul Hossain Shanto and Zakir Hasan scored identical 54 to guide the side to a mammoth 370-run lead.
All of those four wickets he got with extra bounce but to surprise the batters with that bounce, he needed to set them up and he did it with inswing and outswing.
"I am trying to learn the art of setting up batters slowly," Ebadot said.
"We got bounce and there was pace in the wicket, so it was helpful for us. What you saw that I got the wickets with bouncers but it not that I was bowling a barrage of bouncers. Firstly I set up the batters, bowling in front of them, swung it and then gave the bouncer to surprise them. The plan worked for me."
"Earlier I bowled inswing, outswing and gave bouncers two or three times in an over. It's important to set up the batters in Test cricket because in this format, batters tend to be stubborn."
Apart from Ebadot's four-wicket haul, pacer Shoriful Islam took 2-28 while the spinners Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam grabbed the rest of the four wickets evenly. Another pacer Taskin Ahmed, who returned to the fold after recovering from the injury went wicket-less.
Ebadot thinks time is not ripe yet to convince the team management that Bangladesh should play in pacy wicket regularly.
"Wicket was helpful and our three fast bowlers bowled well. But the match is yet to be over and we just bowled in one innings. Let's see if we can continue to do well in the second innings too," Ebadot revealed.
"We all three pacers were confident that we'll bring a good start for the team. We had tried our best and the thing is that the wicket was helpful. We all three tried to use the condition as best as we can and the rest is up to the management. I think if we can continue like this, definitely they can rely on us."
"Our pacers improvement graph has been excellent over the last three years. I am not telling that we grew up as excellent bowling group but if we can keep this up, we will be a dominating group in world cricket."
Ebadot however was not disappointed to squander the chance of claiming a five-for, stating that he put team's priority on top always.
"Captain continued with the spinners because we are behind in over rate. Team comes first always for me, so I was not disappointed."
He rather was happy to be part of new experience that saw Bangladesh fast bowlers bowled with four slips and a gully for the first time in the country.
"This is the first time, we got a wicket like this. The big thing is that we played three pacers in Bangladesh and we are really fortunate to be part of this. We tried to get them out as early as possible and the plan worked."
BDST: 2142 HRS, JUNE 15, 2023
MSK
