Still a long way to go, but I am getting better, says Taskin after four-fer against Netherlands

Sylhet, Aug 31 (IANS) After Bangladesh got an eight-wicket win over the Netherlands in the T20I series opener, fast bowler Taskin Ahmed said he had been encouraged by steps towards rediscovering his rhythm, though he added that there’s still a long way to go for him to be back at his best self.

Taskin, 29, is coming in after an Achilles injury sustained during the ICC Champions Trophy sidelined him from cricketing action for months. "Alhamdulillah, getting better (rhythm-wise). I returned with the Sri Lanka series after injury but struggled a bit there (with my rhythm) but I'm getting better."

"I've worked really hard over the past few weeks in training and still a long way to go and I'm following the process. As a fast bowler, I definitely want to bowl as fast as I can. But it's important to bowl according to the situation.”

"I bowled at the beginning, in the middle and then at the death. I tried to bowl how the situation demanded. I could execute well. In T20Is, even good deliveries can go for a boundary. But it went well overall and could execute the variations properly," Taskin was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

He also pointed out that dew altered the conditions unexpectedly and forced tactical changes for Bangladesh. "Honestly, when we play in the BPL during winter, there's usually some dew and it's quite significant but I didn't expect so much dew in the hot weather. However, that's beyond our control and we can't control the weather and so we just have to adjust to it," he said.

Apart from skipper Litton Das hitting a fifty, offspinner Saif Hassan took two crucial wickets in powerplay and then smashed an unbeaten 36 off 19 balls on being promoted to number four.

"Saif made a good contribution. He took two wickets with the ball and finished strongly with the bat as well. Actually, in every match, every series, we come out to play to win. The improvement we're focusing on is to avoid repeating past mistakes.

"That's why everyone is training hard off the field. We are focusing training on the specific areas that each player needs to improve. It's not just routine training," concluded Taskin.

--IANS

nr/bc