‘Want to play ODIs for a considerable amount of time’

Mashrafe Mortaza has retired from T20Is, but tells ESPNcricinfo he hopes to keep playing ODIs for a `considerable amount of time`, and talks about dealing with off-field criticism, and the challenge of new-ball bowling.

Notwithstanding your retirement from T20 internationals, you will have a big role to play in Bangladesh`s ODI plans in the coming months.

Mashrafe Mortaza I am enjoying ODI cricket. At the same time, I think we are slowly progressing in Tests and T20s, but in ODIs, we have jumped from 10 to 7 [on the ICC rankings]. We have taken a big step. It has come up through performance of several players. I am enjoying playing ODIs and want to play for a considerable amount of time but it is hard to put a time-frame to it, especially in Bangladesh. I hope to keep playing, but if I am going through a hard time and pressure is created, then I have to come to a decision.

You have been having a productive period since the England ODIs last year. Do you now have a different role than the one you had in 2015?

After the 2015 World Cup, I hadn`t really bowled with the new ball. Maybe I did it in a couple of matches against South Africa. From the start of my career, at a very young age, I have always opened the bowling so much of my skill development is around bowling with the new ball. A bowler`s base is built around one point. Mustafizur is more effective with the semi-new ball than the new ball, because of his cutters. Taskin and Rubel are more effective after 10 overs, when they have two extra fielders outside [the circle]. Syed Rasel, Tapash Baisya and Monjurul Islam were all better with the new ball. The same with me.

I could quickly adjust to bowling with the old ball, although initially it was hard for me. I enjoyed the role and since the team was getting success at the time, I felt good about it. Mustafizur got early wickets against India and South Africa but then I returned to open the bowling after he got injured. I had done this my whole life, but when I started opening the bowling against Afghanistan last year, I just picked it up from where I left off.

In the first ODI against Sri Lanka, your first spell pretty much set up the game for Bangladesh. How did you get this knack of getting the early breakthrough?

It depends on the bowler`s confidence and ability. People blame Tamim Iqbal when he doesn`t get runs but he faces two new balls in ODIs. He has the ability to take it on. In my case, [Mohammad] Shahzad hit me for a six in one of the ODIs against Afghanistan but then I got him out, caught behind. My confidence had returned. I started to feel that I was on top. I got breakthroughs against England.
As a captain and senior player, it is quite normal to take on the responsibility. I took it on confidently, and enjoyed it.

The current trend is for every opening batsman to keep attacking all the time. How hard is it, for a bowler, to hold on to his confidence and be patient?

My confidence comes from my long career, from the time I started playing cricket. I don`t think there are as many dangerous openers these days as there were when I started out as an international cricketer.
Every team had great openers: India had Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, Australia had Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist, Sri Lanka had Sanath Jayasuriya and South Africa had Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith. Openers these days aren`t as technically sound, so that works for me.

You said that Courtney Walsh`s presence in the dressing room has made a difference to you. Have you made any little technical changes to your approach?

I have never made too much of a technical change in my action. I have had times when my confidence has gone down, but I never really need such a change. Courtney Walsh`s arrival coincided with me taking the new ball. He helped me build my confidence.

He has his way of tuning a bowler. He is a legend, so even you are talking to him about random things, he will tell you something which makes you think. It takes you to a different level in your mind. I always speak to him, ask him so many questions. I know that my success depends on my confidence, not through any major changes.

On the morning of the second ODI against England last year, he told me to take five wickets. I ended up getting four wickets, and when I returned to the dressing-room, he said that you didn`t keep my word for one wicket.

Do you have a trigger point within your bowling that boosts your confidence?

The wicket gives you the most confidence. But the first ball, which lands where you want it to land, is also quite important. There`s a big difference between an inswinger and outswinger happening involuntarily and when you bowl a particular delivery to your desire. When you can produce it knowingly, you have more chance of getting wickets consistently. The batsmen have a slight disadvantage when the inswing or outswing or any delivery comes out involuntarily, because he also wouldn`t know how it is happening.

In my case, if I can bowl my first ball on top of off stump to left or right-handers, I get confidence. It doesn`t really matter if he defends it or drives the ball. If it goes for four, I feel a little let down but I still have the confidence of landing it where I want. I think the first ball is really important.

For a long time now, Bangladeshi bowlers have this problem of bowling a bad ball right after taking a wicket. Have you thought of addressing this problem?

I think this comes down to experience. We have mostly inexperienced bowlers in our attack. Mustafizur has had a lot of success over a short period of time, and his rate of success will only flatten out now. You can`t expect him to take five-fors all the time. Every opponent now analyses him minutely, and they feel that if he can be stopped, our wicket-taking options can be cut down. I think all of these bowlers - Mustafizur, Taskin and Rubel- will get better with more experience.

Bangladesh now have the right hands, among coaches, to fine-tune our cricketers. They can take care of these technical points, and I don`t think these small issues will be around for a long time. We can mend it quickly.

Who would you say was Bangladesh`s biggest find from the Sri Lanka tour?

It has to be Mehedi Hasan, who made his debut in the limited-overs formats. The most noticeable thing about him is his positivity as a human being. It really surprised me.

When I went to bat in the [26th] over in the third ODI, I told him that let`s bat till the 41st over. We were not in a great position since we had lost a number of wickets. But after playing out a maiden, he came and told me that he can`t play this way. I asked him why. He said that we will lose, whether by 150 runs or by two runs, so let`s play positively. It will create an opportunity for us to win.

In the next over, I struck two fours and so did he. Mehedi came and told me that this is our game. Let`s play it like this. We lost the game but what I liked about the guy was that he was so positive.

On the next night, he did a bit of acting for us, something that he had done in his childhood. It was very funny, but none of us could have done it. This was off the field, but here too, he came off as a very confident person. I think this has an effect in his game.

There was a lot of talk about changes within the Bangladesh team after the Galle Test last month, which included your position in the T20 side. You retired from the format recently. How much are you, as an individual, influenced by what people say around you, or whether you are purely an instinctive person?

Every individual takes on board and lets go of what he hears according to his need. It also depends from man to man whether he takes the positive or the negative things.

The negative things enter my system as well but at the end of the day I believe that I will take my own decisions. Everything should be based on my on-field performance. You will take the decision about your career.

I don`t think I get into a negative mindset after hearing what people have to say. But yes, you will be under mental pressure. You will also understand whether, by creating this mental pressure, a field is being created around you. And it will only be you who has to understand.