“It’s challenging to lose that much of experience from any team, especially for Bangladesh. Those guys have been part of the Bangladesh team in every format for more than 15 years. Some of them for ten years.”
He added, however, that this merely created more opportunities for the burgeoning cricketing talent of Bangladesh.
“It is however something to look forward to, to see what the youngsters can do,” Hathurusingha added that it was also a time for change. “I think it’s a time that we need to move on from some of the players that have played for a long time. They are not going to be there forever.
“We obviously know it is the end goal,” Mitchell said. “That’s what every country taking part in the World Test Championship wants to do. For us, it is about making small goals. Trying to tick off games as we go. First, we have to take on Bangladesh. It is always a tough challenge in Bangladesh.
“Conditions are foreign to us as Kiwis so it is about adapting as quickly as we can to these surfaces, and getting stuck to win little moments. It is what we are speaking about. We are not looking too far ahead. At the same time, you want to be part of those big games. That’s why you play Test cricket.”
“But this is happening because of many reasons. I think it’s exciting and it’s an opportunity for some of the youngsters to make their name and then have a long career.”
Three members of Bangladesh’s squad are uncapped in Test cricket: Hasan Murad, Hasan Mahmud, and Shahadat Hossain Dipu.
Hathurusingha was also acutely aware of the difficulty posed by her limited red-ball cricket experience prior to the series. However, several Bangladeshi players were able to advance to the final round of their first-class National Cricket League subsequent to their return from the World Cup.
“The challenge is these guys haven’t played enough cricket leading up to. So our planning has to be a little bit better than this going forward and making a bigger pool of players available for every position in bowling and batting.
“We used the NCL matches for the guys who played the World Cup as preparation.
“Most of the batters made use of that opportunity. Most of the other players have been playing NCL. This is almost like a new-look Bangladesh team for various reasons. Not by design. I think we are ready as we can be and I’m looking forward to this Test series.”
The coach banked on his spin attack to deliver for the Tigers in the series.
“There is experience in Taijul [Islam] and [Mehidy Hasan] Miraz. Taijul has 177 Test wickets. Definitely, he’ll be a leader of the attack and Miraz is playing since 2016 if I remember correctly,” Hathurusingha added. “Then there’s young Murad and Naeem Hassan. I think playing on this condition and this heat, those guys, spinners mainly, will play a big role.”
The first Test commences on Tuesday, 28 November in Sylhet.
Bangladesh Test squad: Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Shadman Islam, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mominul Haque, Shahadat Hossain Dipu, Mushfiqur Rahim, Nurul Hasan, Mahmudul Hasan, Taijul Islam, Naeem Hasan, Khaled Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Hasan Mahmud, Hasan Murad, Zakir Hasan.
