Maintaining discipline will be the key
Despite the lack of the help of the pitch, Bangladesh bowlers showed good discipline and finished up scalping three wickets on the 3rd day of the first Test at the Pallekele International Stadium in Kandy yesterday.
Sri Lanka trail by 312 runs in their first innings but still it will be very hard for the Tigers to extract an outcome with just two days left to go. However, left-arm spinner Taijul Islam, who bowled 20 overs on the day and scalped the prized wicket of Angelo Mathews, thought that maintaining discipline will be the key for the visitors.
"There is not much help on the pitch -- be it for spinners or pacers. We have to continue working by maintaining discipline. If we can maintain discipline and take action good by containing runs and utilize the pitch [to our advantage] early tomorrow [today], then we can get to a posture from where we can win," said Taijul at a virtual press conference following the day's play.
"It isn't that hitting the rough patches can make the ball take huge turns. The pitch is truly a very slow one for spinners and our plan is to bowl maintaining discipline. It'll be important to figure out how and where to bowl to each batsman," the 29-year-old added.
Taijul, who had said during the West Indies series that a total of 250-300 will be good enough to guard but ended up on the losing side as the Windies chased down a mammoth 395-run target on the ultimate day of the Chattogram Test earlier this season, emphasised on the value of not letting the game slip away.
"Our arrange for tomorrow is to bowl discipline-wise. We must bowl with the proper kind of fielding protection. Definitely, we will play to win the overall game. But we need to keep an eye on not letting the overall game slip away from us at at any time," Taijul said.
Bangladesh went with five regular bowlers -- spinners Taijul and Mehedi Hasan Miraz alongside pacers Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain and Abu Jayed. Taijul thought that using five bowlers helps take the pressure on any particular bowler.
"It's always good to have significantly more bowlers when playing Tests. So, having five bowlers in the medial side definitely helps me or any other bowler as we get more time to rest and initiate a comeback," Taijul added.
In lack of spin consultant Daniel Vettori, Sohel Islam has accompanied the Tigers as their spin bowling coach.
"We [spinners] really work with Sohel bhai mostly whenever we practise in Dhaka. Whenever I face any issue, Sohel bhai recognises it instantly and understands my problem. So that it is beneficial for me personally to have him around," said Taijul.
