Domingo differs from Tamim on tinkering for third ODI
ODI captain Tamim Iqbal had hinted that he was willing to test the bench strength in the third ODI against West Indies by playing players from the squad who did not make the playing eleven yet but head coach Russell Domingo doubted whether the conditions along with the matchups will let them make too many changes heading into the third ODI at Guyana tomorrow despite the series not being part of the ODI Super League.
Bangladesh had to drop Taskin Ahmed from the second ODI and play Mosaddek Hossain given the spinning conditions at play in Guyana. Meanwhile Anamul Haque Bijoy, who notched the world-record of scoring the most number runs in first-class cricket in a single season by scoring 1138 runs in the Dhaka Premier League (DPL) for Prime Bank, appeared in the second Test in Windies and also featured in the T20I series but did not get a game in the fifty-over format ODIs despite staking his claim in the one-day format of DPL.
Domingo said that Taskin and Bijoy were unlucky. While Taskin's exclusion was due to the matchups and conditions, Domingo said that Bijoy must wait his turn as there are others ahead in the pecking order in front of Bijoy.
"Yes absolutely. Bijoy has done fantastically well but I like to be fair as a coach. The player that's in the squad, must get the first chance. The player that's coming into the squad must then wait his turn, like [Yasir Ali] Rabbi. He [Rabbi] travelled with the team for a long time and then he eventually got his turn. He's [Bijoy] now in the squad, he's got to wait for his opportunity because the player who's in the squad ahead of him, should play first.
"Taskin was hugely unlucky. Just the conditions. Not difficult to figure out that any seamer who can bowl cutters and spin the bowl away from the right handers is going to be a better option. His slower deliveries are generally off-cutters coming into the right-handed batters. Just getting the ball away from the right-hander seemed to be the better option here and that's why we have two left-arm seamers at the moment. Taskin will play. He has been fantastic for us in this format. Just because of the conditions it's unfortunate," Domingo said.
From the squad players in the ODI squad, Bijoy, Ebadot Hossain and Taijul Islam are yet to play in the series. Domingo however differed from Tamim, pondering whether too many changes were possible. Although Bangladesh go into the third ODI having already clinched the series, for Domingo the scenario may not allow too many changes.
"It's tricky. I would really love to play Bijoy but that's another right-hander in our line-up and I feel we really need to have left-handers in that particular line-up. So maybe not too many changes in the batting line-up. He is the only batsman who hasn't played a game yet in fifty overs format but he is a right-hander and I would like to have as many left-handers as possible in the line-up. So, I wouldn't like to tinker with that.
"The pitch conditions mean we have to plan an extra spinner, so, very difficult to play all the other fast bowlers since there is nothing in there for them at the moment. You want to play everybody but you need a balanced team suitable for those conditions. So might not be possible [to make many changes] tomorrow," Domingo said a day ahead of the third and final ODI.