Patience pays off for Imrul

IMRUL KAYES

Four matches into the Bangladesh Premier League, Imrul Kayes' batting average hovered around a dismal 12. While he failed to get off the mark in the first two games, he posted 13 and 24 in the next two.

By the time the tournament shifted to Chittagong, certain analysts had already written him off.

It wasn't the start that Imrul had expected, especially after having scored two consecutive half-centuries against Zimbabwe in the ODI series which took place just before the BPL.

"Honestly speaking, it felt bad. I hadn't done well in the last two BPLs either and I really wanted to play good cricket in this edition. I think the problem initially was that I was trying to hit every ball."

"I used to think that I just had to score a boundary after every dot ball. That's what my instincts told me," Imrul told The Daily Star yesterday."

It was only during the Chittagong-leg of the competition that the left-hander decided to calm down and follow a different method.

"The idea that I had to hit a boundary after every dot ball was something that I wanted to leave behind. I tried to play every ball to its merit. Instead of scoring a boundary after a dot ball, I looked for singles."

"That over-aggressive technique didn't work for me," explained Imrul.

As it so happened, Imrul went on to score more than 300 runs in the competition and finished as the second highest run-scorer behind Kumar Sangakkara.

It was a tournament that in a sense helped Imrul battle against critics who have often termed him as a 'Test player'.

"Before the competition began, there were former players and experts on talk shows who said that there were too many Test players in the Comilla side. By that of course some of them referred to me."

"This feels really bad because the fact remains that I was the leading run-scorer for Bangladesh in the ODIs in one particular season. So I do have the ability to play the shorter formats and I have proved that," said Imrul.

"But unfortunately some players are termed Test players as soon as they play badly in a few innings. For instance, a player like Mehrab Hossain Jr was termed a Test player. I think he is much more than that," said Imrul.

Imrul has almost perennially been the go-to man in the ODIs whenever the selectors wanted to replace an opener in the national side. He played a lone match in the Asia Cup in 2014 in place of Shamsur Rahman.

During the 2015 World Cup he was called after Anamul Haque had injured his shoulder. More recently, he replaced Soumya Sarkar in the Zimbabwe series.

"It's hard to start afresh every single time because there are plenty of things going on in your head in such a scenario. I have to overcome those obstacles every time," the player admitted.

"But that's how it is and I am going to continue trying. Be it any format, I am going to try giving it my best," he added with wry smile.

When asked if he felt he had a chance to make it to the national T20 side, he said: "I really don't know. But I will hope for the best."