Bangladesh saw a golden opportunity to win their first ever Test series against South Africa given the visitors’ dismal record in Sub-continent.
South Africa might have never lost a Test to Bangladesh but they couldn’t register any victory on Sub-continent in the last 10 years.
The two teams, so far, played 14 Tests between them with South Africa winning 12. The Proteas last time visited Bangladesh in 2015 for two Test and both of the Test were drawn, largely due to rain and inclement weather.
“It is definitely a good opportunity. Bangladesh are usually very strong at home. So, it is a very good opportunity for us to win the Test series,” Bangladesh’s newly appointed coach Phil Simmons said on Saturday (October 19) in his first interaction with the local media.
“South Africa has that (record of not winning in sub-continent in last ten years) hanging over their head but they are a resilient team. They will work hard to change that,” Simmons added, also reminding the Tigers of not being complacent, considering the Proteas’ track record.
The South Africa series will mark Simmons’ first assignment with Bangladesh after he replaced Chandika Hathurusingha. He was appointed on an interim basis and will be at the helm of the team till the Champions Trophy 2025.
Bangladesh had recently sacked Hathurusingha, citing his assault on a player during 2023 World Cup in India and taking leaves more than allowed.
Simmons, however, wants to make a winning start to his coaching career with Bangladesh.
“The good thing is we have a very important Test match to prepare for. We want to win the next few Tests, and we are in contention for the (WTC) final,” he remarked.
“My first target is to get the squad ready for Monday. The last two days (of training) have been brilliant. We have to try to leave out the confusion that’s around the cricket, and concentrate to prepare for Monday,” he said.
As a coach, Simmons has a distinguished career that BCB took in consideration.
Having represented the West Indies in 26 Tests and 143 ODIs between 1987 and 1999, Simmons began his international coaching career with Zimbabwe in 2004 before going on to coach Ireland from 2007 to 2015.
He was appointed West Indies Head Coach twice and was in charge when the team became ICC World T20 champions in 2016. Simmons also coached Afghanistan from 2018 to 2019.
Most recently, Simmons has worked with teams in various franchisee leagues, including the Caribbean Premier League, Pakistan Super League, Major League Cricket in the USA, and the GT20 in Canada.
He said he will spread his knowledge and experience in Bangladesh camp in a bid to bring out the best from the team.
“All these experiences will help me in the next few days to get me ready for Monday,” he said, adding that he knows how to overcome the language barrier to make the players comfortable.
“Afghanistan helped me with the language barrier sometimes. Ireland helped me with developing young players. It all comes in at the end of the day. I have to use all those experiences in this assignment,” he added.
Source: BSS