We can’t be Russell or Pollard even if we want to: Mahedi

GBNews24 Desk//

Bangladesh allrounder Mahedi Hasan believes that they should play methodical cricket for their improvement in this format even though the power-hitting capability is a necessary skill to thrive in the T20 cricket.

According to him, there is no point of crying for a genuine power-hitter since Bangladeshi people are not by born strong enough to match the power of the likes of Caribbean or other cricketers.

“We are Bangladeshi and no one is power hitter here. Even if we want, we can’t be the likes of Andre Russell of Keiron Pollard. But still we can improve in this format if we sincerely give our best,” Mahedi said on Tuesday as Bangladesh T20 squad are preparing to leave the country for Zimbabwe where they will play three T20 Internationals and as many ODIs.

Wrist strength or muscle strength is believed to be required in a bid to hit sixes at will as the team always target quick runs in the power play in cricket’s shortest format. While every team in the world has that type of batters in their squad, Bangladesh are the only team which are quite behind here. The lack of power hitters makes it almost impossible for them to succeed.

“As I said, we can’t be Andre Russell or Pollard if we want to. We can improve as much as we can with what we have,” Mahedi differed.

But he believes a power-hitting coach is required to enhance their skill to some extent.

“Yes, a power hitting coach is needed. But the skill that you have, the coach may improve it by 10 percent. But he can’t improve it to 100 percent from 30 percent. We are born like this. You can’t change the things overnight.”

Although not a power hitter, Mahedi is well known as a batter who can score runs fluently but his strike rate in T20 International doesn’t quite translate his ability. He scored 222 runs in 34 T20Is with just 102 strike rates for the country. He is considered as a floater, who can bat in all position.

However, he batted most in the number eight position and he has also the experience to open the innings. So far his highest knock is 30.

Although not successful in international T20, Mahedi’s domestic performance looks better as he scored 1235 runs in 77 innings at a strike rate of 125.25.