Bangladesh struggling to adapt to Zimbabwe's bounce, admits Ashraful

Bangladesh batting coach Mohammad Ashraful admitted on Wednesday that his batters are struggling to adjust to the extra bounce in Zimbabwe.

Bangladesh arrived in Zimbabwe with four successive Test wins before suffering an innings defeat in the one-off Test. They had also won four consecutive ODI series before Zimbabwe won the opening match of the three-ODI contest.

Bangladesh now face a must-win second ODI in Harare on Thursday. Ashraful urged his batters to adapt better to the conditions and the challenge posed by Zimbabwe's tall fast bowlers.

"Our batsmen played very good cricket in Bangladesh for the last seven months. We came to Zimbabwe in 2022 and struggled there too. We still haven't been able to do well in the Test and first ODI. The bounce is definitely extra," Ashraful said.

Ashraful praised Zimbabwe's pace attack, led by 6ft 7in Blessing Muzarabani and 6ft 6in Richard Ngarava, with Brad Evans at 6ft 1in and Newman Nyamhuri at 5ft 11in.

"The pace bowling unit Zimbabwe has now is very good. They are tall and getting extra bounce. Our batsmen may be missing that area, but we are working on it."

Despite the disappointing start, Ashraful backed his unit to bounce back. "I am sure in the next two matches our batsmen will get into rhythm. The mistakes they made, they will recover from."

Ashraful also pointed to larger boundaries in Zimbabwe and felt Bangladesh had little luck in the opening ODI. "We were a little unlucky. In Bangladesh, boundary size is around 60-65 metres, but here it's almost 73-75 metres. The shot Tamim played went exactly the opposite way because of the bounce."

He reiterated: "The conditions are not easy. All four Zimbabwean fast bowlers are bowling at a very good line and length, and getting extra bounce because of their height."