‘Managing swing key in Pakistan’

Before taking on the role of High Performance (HP) head coach in May 2023, the former Bermudian player David Hemp served as the head coach of the Pakistan women’s national team between 2020 and 2022. Earlier this year, the 53-year-old was officially assigned to the Bangladesh national cricket team as their batting coach. Since then, he has worked with the Tigers at several bilateral and global tournaments, including the recently concluded T20 World Cup in the US and West Indies. Bangladesh’s next international engagement will be in Pakistan, where they will play two Tests, both part of the ICC Test Championship. Given Hemp’s previous experience in that part of the world, Bangladesh will have high expectations for his insights into the playing conditions there. On Monday, Hemp spoke to Samsul Arefin Khan of the Daily Star by phone from Australia on various aspects including the team’s preparation and chances for the series. The excerpts are as follows:

The Daily Star (DS): Bangladesh have not played many Tests in Pakistan over the years. How do you see the team’s overall chances in this series?

David Hemp (DH): I think Pakistan are a strong team… and will back themselves to do well on home soil. It’s not going to be an easy series in terms of conditions and surfaces. But traditionally, we’ve seen in the last few years that there have been good batting surfaces. It’s a conventional swing to start with and then the reverse swing plays a major role in the game. But until we get there and see the conditions, because they might decide to leave grass on the wicket or it might be so much grass that the wicket is oppressive (for batters), we won’t know anything about it.

DS: Pitches in Pakistan are not like the typical subcontinental pitches, which often help the pacers while some yield a lot of runs. What will be the biggest challenges for our batters on these surfaces?

DH: The main plan is to manage the conventional swing and the reverse swing and how we can help the players understand what they are going to be up against. If you look at the teams that have gone to Pakistan in the last few years, it’s about occupying the crease most of the time… so you can bowl well and also set up fields. The games were generally played on the last day because they were very good for batting. You really have to work hard to (take) wickets, but if you swing the ball and reverse swing it, you have a very good chance of knocking people over.

DS: Our HP team is going to Australia for two four-day matches, while our A team is going to Pakistan before the Test series. Do you think our Test players should prepare for these matches as well?

DH: I’m not sure what the selectors are going to do with the individuals… whether they can send them. As you said, there are a few tours… so there’s a chance to watch some of the players there, get them used to the conditions.

DS: Bangladesh had a good start in this cycle of the ICC Test Championship, beating New Zealand in their first match, but then went off the rails. How do you see the team’s position in terms of performance in this format?

DH: I think the win against New Zealand was very good. Apart from Glenn Phillips’ innings in Dhaka, I think we could have won that match. He played exceptionally well and was the difference between the two teams with the runs he scored in the second innings. It was disappointing of course. We put ourselves in a winning position.

In the Sri Lanka series in March, our focus was on batting for longer periods. Unfortunately, we couldn’t achieve that. We couldn’t bat more than 50 overs in three innings. Our best batting performance was in the second Test where we managed to bat for that longer period, forcing the opposition to change their approach during the innings. We need to make sure that we occupy the crease for as long as possible. That means we need to aim for at least 100 overs and assess our position at that point. It’s a target that we should all strive for.

Another disappointing aspect of that series was missing a few chances against the Sri Lankan middle order. If we had taken those chances, the outcome might have been different. From a batting perspective, you can’t be satisfied with just batting 50 overs in a Test match. We need to bat longer than that, and that’s something we all need to focus on.

DS: Regarding our performance in the last T20 World Cup, how do you rate everything? People were disappointed after the team missed a golden opportunity to reach the semi-finals. Do you think if the team had shown more courage, they could have finished in the top four?

DH: I’m not sure the word “courage” is right. We put ourselves in a position where we had a slim chance of getting into the semi-finals. I think if someone had said before the tournament that not only would we get into the Super Eight but we had a slim chance of getting into the semi-finals, it would have been considered a pretty successful World Cup. I think people will understand the surfaces that we played on. In the World Cup in the West Indies and the USA, some of the surfaces were challenging. Of course, it was disappointing not to get over the line against Afghanistan when we were chasing the total. But it was a very tough challenge on a difficult surface. Ultimately, it was the most successful World Cup, perhaps the best World Cup that Bangladesh has ever had. If you step back and say that Bangladesh won three games, lost one game by four runs and lost another game by eight runs, you can see that we were not far off winning five games of T20 cricket, which would have made for a very rewarding World Cup.

DS: But don’t you think the batters should have hit better than they showed during the tournament?

DH: Ultimately, we try to win games of cricket. You pick the options that you feel are right at the time. What we found was that some of the best players in the world went into the World Cup and didn’t perform at all. You have to understand where our batters were in that context and how challenging it was. It’s not as simple as saying you can stand and hit through the line and hit balls over the top because some surfaces didn’t allow us to do that. We are conducive to that type of play. The disappointment is that we know we have good players with a high level of skill but they didn’t show that consistently. That’s the most disappointing thing, not the fact that people want to win the game. You also understand that T20 cricket is about managing pressure and one bad over can cost you the game. So if you lose two wickets in the space of two overs, the game changes or tilts very quickly. We keep that in mind. But in terms of the result, getting to the Super Eight was our first target and we were not far off the semi-finals.

DS: Bangladesh’s Test team is quite different from the white-ball teams, although there are players like Shanto and Liton who play in all three formats. How do you see their preparation for the series?

DH: In terms of preparation, we have a number of test players who are in the white-ball squad. But those who are not in the squad are preparing amongst themselves. With a few practice matches coming up, I think they have enough opportunities to prepare for the test matches.

DS: Can you tell us more specifically about the form of Shanto and Liton? One is the captain, and the other is also a permanent member of the squad.

DH: Obviously they’ve got a break now. They’ll be playing in those practice games, so they’ll get a chance to mentally get themselves ready for the longer version. That’s the adjustment you’ve got to make. It’s about occupying the crease, making good decisions and playing the ball and leaving it there because there’s no pressure on the scoreboard. It’s about occupying the crease for as long as possible.