Pothas might just need a ‘magic wand’

Former South Africa batter Nic Pothas was appointed assistant coach of Bangladesh and deputy to head coach Chandika Hathurusingha and, with the Sri Lankan still on vacation, Pothas has been overseeing the Tigers' training camp. In his first interaction with the media, he joked about having a magic wand that could fix Test batting woes.

It is still early days for Pothas in Bangladesh cricket. Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh by a big 224 runs the last time the two sides met in a Test which created controversies. While foreign coaches come and go, a lot is expected from the current crop but Pothas was not aware of how things work here in the media.

He appeared to dilute the intensity of an intriguing question from the media with a joke. With the Bangladesh A side struggling against West Indies A in an ongoing four-day game, Bangladesh's Test failings and what Pothas may bring to the plate were brought up.

He was asked how he would effect changes in the format at a press conference yesterday, replying: "I have got a magic wand. I will just wave the magic wand. Very quickly we will make batsmen."

He went on to clarify that he was joking. "I am joking. These things take time. I cannot come into a new culture and suddenly just start to change things. I have to watch the batsmen for a period," he added.

Selector Habibul Bashar had appeared at a loss for words the other day when speaking about the A side's batting failure. Pothas put it well enough that he needed time to know the players and he opined countries could go through waves of doing well or doing poorly.

"The excitement is in solving the problem. You have to play the seamers before you get to the spin. We can't focus all our attention on [Afghanistan's] spin and before we know it, we are five down against seam. We will do our analysis and research. Test matches are like a game of chess," he opined.

It would be easier said than done given that the A side's Mominul Haque and youngster Mahmudul Hasan had gotten out to deliveries on their pads in the ongoing third four-day match in Sylhet. Pothas has been working with both red-ball and white-ball cricketers at the ongoing camp, but generally Tests see Tigers suffer the most and his work would be more pivotal going forward.

Given Bangladesh A's current struggles against West Indies A and Bangladesh's overall record in Test cricket, Afghanistan will be a tough ask. The spin challenge and players playing red-ball formats sporadically means the Tigers might just need a magic wand to overcome their Test record at home against Afghanistan.