Bangladesh all-rounder Miraz defends past surfaces, hopes for true wickets

Bangla Press Desk: Bangladesh One Day International captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz said on Tuesday that his team are ready to embrace true wickets, even in home conditions, as they prepare for the three-match series against Pakistan starting on Wednesday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.

Bangladesh faced heavy criticism the last time they played ODI cricket at home against the West Indies in October last year, where spin played a significant role. Miraz, however, assured that Bangladesh will not return to those extreme conditions as they begin preparations for the 2027 Cricket World Cup scheduled to be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.“We will definitely play on true wickets,” Miraz said on the eve of the Pakistan ODIs. “And in my opinion what we did in the West Indies series is something every team does when they play at home. If you look around the world, whichever team play at home try to take advantage of home conditions,” he said while defending the conditions used in the Windies series.

“Since we tried to take that home advantage, and because the West Indies have two spin bowlers, we prepared those kinds of conditions. But now we will definitely try to play on true wickets so that the batsmen gain confidence and can score a lot of runs — that’s how we want to move forward,” he said.

Miraz also explained the idea of balancing home advantage with long-term preparation.

“The concept of a true wicket, as you mentioned — in World Cups there are usually very good wickets, and we want to start getting used to that from now. Because before the 2027 World Cup we still have many ODI matches left. So if we can play the maximum number of matches on true wickets, it will give us good experience,” he said.

“At the same time, we also have to remember that we need to qualify as well. So if you see that there are teams against whom we can take advantage of home conditions, we will definitely try to prepare those kinds of conditions to take the home advantage. But at the same time we also have to keep in mind that we should play the maximum number of matches on true and good wickets,” he added.

“And when we talk about home conditions, it doesn’t mean that we will provide very bad wickets or play on poor pitches. No, we will still give good wickets — we just want to make sure we can take a bit of home advantage,” he concluded.Source: daily Sun

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