‘Competition is a necessity’

Anamul Haque returned to the Bangladesh fold following his domestic circuit performances where he scored 1077 first-class runs at an average of 63.35 in 2017, including two double hundreds in the National Cricket League. He also scored 596 runs in 16 innings in the Dhaka Premier League before completing the year with 206 runs in eight Bangladesh Premier League innings at a strike-rate of 128.75.

However, after three matches since his return, the opener was dropped from the final of the three-nation tournament at home against Sri Lanka.

The competition for the opening slot has only increased following the Nidahas Trophy where Liton Das played some handy innings for the Tigers at the top of the order.

Anamul said that competition and challenges are all necessary to improve cricket as a whole in Bangladesh, although, competition for spots might mean that he may not play for the Tigers in the upcoming series.

"Competition is a necessity and it will help Bangladesh cricket move forward. With competition, the performances will come out and that is a good thing for Bangladesh cricket.

Competition is good and what we want are those who perform well and on a consistent basis and they should feature for Bangladesh cricket," Anamul said.

Anamul reiterated that he was looking forward to improving his game and was not going to give up hope, rather suggesting that better domestic performances can help him comeback into the side once again.

"Habit of scoring runs in very important for a batsman just as wicket-taking is important for bowlers. Whether in international scene or domestic cricket, confidence is high when you are among the runs.

Luck might favour you or sometimes it may not. But international players come up after doing well in domestic circuit. So, one has to prepare for international cricket with domestic cricket," he added.

"I have had good times in domestic cricket. I arrived at international cricket and the two matches did not go well and Bangladesh did not manage to become champions but that does not mean that I won't be able to do better in the future.

"I will try to make sure that I don't repeat the mistakes I committed earlier in international cricket," he concluded.