Even after failing to take a single Indian wicket on Day 1 of the one-off Test, Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha on Wednesday defended the team management’s decision of not including pacer Rubel Hossain in the playing XI.
“Rubel’s thing is that he is coming after an injury and is not hundred per cent. The other reason is that this wicket, we thought that if Rubel has to play and has to bowl a lot then there is a chance of a recurrence of his injury because he didn’t get a chance to play practice matches,” the coach said at the end of first day’s play here.
“Not that he is not fit, he is not to fit to bowl on this kind of a wicket because you need a lot of effort to bowl on this kind of a wicket to be successful. If the wicket was helping fast bowlers, we could have gone in a different way.”
Hathurusingha insisted that it was better to preserve Rubel for the three-match ODI series rather than playing him on this kind of a pitch.
The Sri lankan clarified that the team was picked after looking at the wicket.
“The plan was to pick the team we thought was good for the wicket and according to our strength. I think we created enough chances, but few things didn’t go our way.
“We have made progress in a lot of ways. At this stage, we are playing with one fast bowler because of the condition, not that we have not progressed. Sometime we were limited in certain ways,” said Hathurusingha.