‘Need to be smarter in our approach’

In modern-day cricket, Performance Analysis has become the most essential tool in strategising for any team in world cricket as it provides a detailed idea of their opponents. Bangladesh cricket team's performance analyst Shrinivas Chandrasekaran, who has remained a vital component in the Bangladesh team over the past three years, spoke to The Daily Star's Mazhar Uddin during an interview in which he shares his experience along with a few other topics. The excerpts of the interview are given below:

The Daily Star (DS): What are the areas of the Performance Analysis can the players utilise to improve?

Shrinivas Chandrasekaran (SC): Like me, there'll be someone else sitting in the opposition dugout analysing our team. So it's important for our players to know what the opposition bowlers are up to, such as -- what are his defensive deliveries or which one is the go-to ball under pressure or what he does in the backend of the innings. They have to be well aware of what they're going to face in the game to avoid getting surprised. Even if they come up with something different, I have to anticipate it and inform our players. I normally have conversations with the players in simulating a situation like -- if I was in the opposition, what could I come up with. So it's my duty to inform them of all possibilities.

DS: Bangladesh have an over-the-board fascination with different-handed batting combination and with the ball as well. Does that come from data gathering or it's just something they feel that will upset opponents?

SC: It's not a fascination, rather it's the idea, executed all around the world, of forcing the left-hander to go against the spin by facing an off-spinner. Tell me, why did Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls bat at number five and six in the early stage of the series? It's because they knew off-spinner Mahedi Hasan will open the innings while left-armers Nasum and Shakib will come in the middle overs, and so they tried to play more with the spin. I think cricket has undergone an evolution where the teams started to realise the importance of having leg-spinners, who could turn the ball both ways, and also deploy left-handers in the middle, just to disturb the opponent's game-plan.

DS: You've worked with big-named T20 players in the IPL [Indian Premier League]. How strong are the Bangladesh players compared to IPL's?

SC: I won't say there's a big difference in terms of mind-set. It's just that, the experience they've gathered playing big pressure matches is more than ours, and they can make the right decisions. We've a relatively young and inexperienced bunch of players, who'll also learn with more experience.

DS: Are you already in the process of analysing world cup opponents? How do you rate Bangladesh's chances in the World Cup?

SC: Yes, I had already started working, with the world cup in mind, a long time back and as far as our chances are concerned, I think we need to take one game at a time. First, we play the qualifiers and then evaluate our chances. As this format is very unpredictable, we don't want to think too far ahead.

DS: What would be the most crucial aspect in performing well in the World Cup and are there any glaring weaknesses that can be worked on?

SC: It'll be to assess the condition as quickly as possible because the pitches can be a bit tricky in Dubai and Abu Dhabi as well as in Oman, considering my experience in the previous edition of the IPL. The grounds over there are relatively bigger and even though we're not a big-hitting team, we can still be a bit smart in finding the gaps and work hard on the running between the wickets. I think we've got an all-around bowling unit irrespective of the surfaces so if we can consistently pile up a good score, we can do well. But for that, we need to be smarter in our approach.