As the New Zealand cricket team gears up for their impending duel against Bangladesh in a two-Test series starting November 28th, head coach Luke Ronchi showers praise on their spin bowling coach Saqlain Mushtaq. His vast experience and expertise, especially regarding familiarizing with the playing conditions in Bangladesh, receives significant emphasis from Ronchi. Saqlain’s previous association with New Zealand’s white-ball squad during their tour in Pakistan earlier this year adds to the confidence in the camp around his contributions.
Ronchi reflects on Saqlain’s unique approach in mentoring the kiwi spinners. “I mean his (Saqlain’s) knowledge of these parts of the world is fantastic, and the way he can talk with our spinners, coaching them on different areas like trajectory, lines, and lengths, and also on reading a pitch and how it might play. It’s fantastic,” Ronchi gleefully remarked. He continues, admitting Saqlain’s long-standing international cricket career fuels his invaluable insights, “To use his knowledge is a very big thing for us.”
The New Zealand team, fully aware of the spin-centric challenges in Bangladesh, has strategically equipped itself with five spinners: Ish Sodhi, Ajaz Patel, Mitchell Santner, Rachin Ravindra, and Glenn Phillips. This is notably a substantial increase from the single spinner they included in their squad when they last toured Bangladesh in 2013.
Ronchi acknowledges the prominence of spin in the Bangladesh cricket scene and appears to be anticipating pitches that provide notable turn and variable bounce. He notes, “I think that’s the nature of cricket in Bangladesh, isn’t it? There’s a lot more spinners involved. With the training we’ve had and the way the surfaces have played there, we’re expecting a bit more up and down, a bit more turn. So we’ll see how it goes, see how it plays out.”
Additionally, another significant challenge for the New Zealand team is effectively addressing the spin threat as batsmen. Ronchi discusses the popularization of the reverse sweep as a counter to spin, suggesting that New Zealand batters are working to discover their personal formulas for contending with such challenges.
“You see reverse sweeping coming into it a heck lot more now which does make it more challenging for bowlers. But that’s how guys are going to play it. They need to work out the surface and adapt to that surface in whichever way they think is going to help them the best to score the runs they can score,” Ronchi evaluates.
Given the team’s regular encounters with subcontinental pitches, including their recent tour of Pakistan, Ronchi believes they are armed with adaptable tactics and experience. He asserts, “For the majority of our group here, they have been in India, they’ve been at the World Cups, and they’ve been practicing on different surfaces, slower and turning sort of surfaces. So that hopefully helps us for this Test series.”
Despite the recent home Test defeat to Bangladesh at Mount Maunganui in 2022, which Ronchi was asked about, he does not dwell on it. Rather, he views it as a stepping stone in the arduous journey of international cricket and expresses his forward-looking stance by stating that they come to compete and perform to their utmost abilities.
The tour commences with the first Test in Sylhet, starting November 28, followed by the second game in Dhaka from December 6. The cricketing fraternity eagerly awaits to see how New Zealand adapts to the quintessentially tricky Bangladeshi pitches and leverages Saqlain Mushtaq’s critical strategic acumen to their advantage.