Blueprint for current U-19 team different from 2020: Naveed

Bangladesh will vie to defend their ACC U-19 Asia Cup, scheduled to be held in the UAE from November 29, which will be the first big test of the current batch of the young Tigers. The U-19 boys recently had a successful outing against their UAE counterparts, winning the lone three-day match and one-day series at home quite dominantly. Bangladesh U-19 team head coach Naveed Nawaz, who had guided the 2020 batch to World Cup success, recently talked to The Daily Star's Samsul Arefin Khan from Melbourne over phone on many aspects including their recent series, plans for Asia Cup and the new blueprint for next World Cup. The excerpts are as follows:

The Daily Star (DS): The recent UAE series was the first international assignment of the current batch of U-19 boys. How satisfied are you with their performance in the series?

Naveed Nawaz (NN): Result-wise, we can be happy. But my target was to understand the brand of cricket we want to play and the challenges we will be getting in the future. We have been training with this group since July. We have to foresee the problems that we will face in the future and we were focused on finding answers. Things like how do we want to play spin, play pace, how do we want to control our batting, what are the key aspects of bowling that we are looking at and combination of the team. We are working on these things and the boys are also responding pretty well.

Obviously, the opposition wasn't really strong but I'm sure when we go to the Asia Cup and play Sri Lanka in December, we are going to face much tougher opposition. But it's important for our players to understand how they want to approach the game and what kind of cricket they want to play. They should bring the same thing in the middle from their practice so that they can learn in every outing and you must be getting betters. And that's the idea.

DS: Who are the players that impressed you the most in the UAE?

NN: All of them were given clear roles to play. We are trying to make them understand what role they are playing in the team, what us expected from them and how do they go about doing that. I'm not looking at purely on performances. We saw a lot of good performances, like our fast bowlers did really well in the three-day game and when we came back to Mirpur, we saw our spinners doing well. And of course, the batsmen – Zawad, Rifat, Tamim and Aleen – have been scoring runs. There were some useful performances from the late order as well. But you have to get better and you have to have a better understanding of the game so that you can do the same thing against the tough opponents.

DS: There were two skippers – Tamim [Azizul Hakim] and Aleen [Kalam Siddiki] – in the series, why?

NN: Before the series, we played almost 10-15 warm-up matches during camps and things like that. We have given the captaincy role to six to seven players. From there, we shortlisted Aleen and Tamim. We wanted to try them out in the series and evaluate their performance as a leader, how they marshal the team in the middle, how they change their bowlers and how they communicate the bigger messages. The captain has to convey ideas of the coaching staff and what is expected from the boys to the players and get them on board for the better of the team. We are trying to see who is better at doing it – Aleen or Tamim – and that's why we had two captains.

DS: Have you settled on the group of players for the current U-19 batch or will there be further changes?

NN: We tried out around 17 players in that series. Also, we are keeping the records of all the players, even from the practice matches that we have played. Some were satisfactory and some were not satisfactory. We have tested them in many ways. After that, we have shortlisted about 23 or 24 players [from 39]. We are keen to look at the YCL [Youth Cricket League] next year and see if we can find new players.

DS: In the next U-19 World Cup, scheduled in 2026 in Zimbabwe and Namibia, do you plan to go with the successful blueprint of 2020 or go with a different one?

NN: The blueprint will be different. This squad is quite different from that one. In 2020, we had many batters, we didn't have many all-rounders but we had a couple of good fast bowlers and good spinners. We always depended on six batters, one all-rounder and four bowlers and it was our combination in the 2020 U-19 World Cup. In this World Cup, it's going to be a bit different. There are a couple of all-rounders in the team. It all depends on how these players respond against stronger teams. Against the UAE, it worked. We played at home and the wickets helped them. We got to go to Sharjah and Dubai and try out different combinations and see what's the best one for us. Depending on the players' strengths, we have to prepare a strategy of how we plan play in the World Cup.

DS: Do you think the Asia Cup will be first real test of the current batch?

NN: This Asia Cup is meant for 2005-borns. The age cut-off is 2005 September (2006 September is World Cup cut-off). I'm sure most of the teams will bring older players during the Asia Cup. I think it will be a mix of older players and players who are eligible to play in the 2026 World Cup. We are yet to finalise yet what will be our strategy moving forward but I'm sure that 80 to 90 percent of the squad will comprise of players who are eligible to play in the next U-19 World Cup.

DS: Do you need to work on these players more than the 2020 batch?

NN: It's a bit same. These players come with some areas that they need to work on. The main thing is that everyone should be aligned towards what sort of cricket we want to play and personally they have to sort out whatever weaknesses they have and work on that. It's like one baby step at a time. It's hard to compare the two teams. The idea in the bigger picture is always to produce cricketers for the pipeline. We need more and more cricketers to represent the country one day. In the last couple of years, the U-19 pipeline is giving a lot of cricketers to the national team. We are trying to build a team to win a World Cup but on the other hand, we are also targeting on player development to make sure we produce players who are capable of competing against the world.