Roach relying on experience, skill

“I need a cover and a point, no need to keep anyone deep at square.”

West Indian pace bowler Kemar Roach responded loudly to coach Phil Simmons when asked about his field setting at the start of the match scenario practice of the Test squad at the BCB academy premises on Friday.

Roach bowled a short delivery that kept low and skipper Braithwaite was plumb in-front of the stumps. Yet the fast bowler did not draw any praise as coach Simmons and Shannon Gabriel weren’t pleased with him for having bowled short.

From then on, Roach bowled a lot fuller, and as did Gabriel. It seemed like the experienced duo was well aware of the fact that it will not reap any dividends from bowling short in Bangladesh conditions. It’s not surprising for Roach to have this information – afterall he debuted in the same country way back in 2009 in similar conditions.

Roach can also take confidence from the fact that he is quite successful against the hosts, picking 33 wickets in eight Test matches that he has played against them.

“Yes obviously ( I am confident),” Roach said. “In Bangladesh, it’s always difficult for fast bowlers to get wickets. I think once you plan well and if I can execute my plans… I am looking forward to doing well here as well. We are here to win because it’s very important to win,’’ he said, adding that bowling it straight and attacking the batsmen backed with a precise field setting is expected to bring them success.

‘’It’s more attacking at the field… you try to bowl straighter because there is not much bounce in the pitches. Bowl in good area, attack as much as possible and set-up a pretty good field,’’ he said when asked about what it would take to be successful in the two-match series.

Roach believes the pace troika of himself, Alzarri Joseph and Shannon Gabriel will have their task cut out while the spinners will also do the bulk of the bowling.

‘’Yes obviously we have a job to do (the seasoned pace trio) me and Shannon and Alzarri, spinners obviously will probably do the bulk of the work,’’ said Roach.

‘’I think what we do is we what we are best at and that is take the wickets and we help the team by bowling the opposition out and execute our plans better. We have been planning out and having conversation with the bowling coach and ourselves obviously, so we know what we want to do,’’ he said.

Roach also addressed the challenge ahead of West Indies against a team that has been solid in home conditions. The speedster expects a ‘good fight’ from a ‘mentally very tough team’.

‘’They are a pretty good side like [Tamim] Iqbal, Shakib is back and Mushfiqur is there and Mahmudullah. They always give a good fight because they are mentally very tough team and they train very hard to do well,’’ he said. (Cricbuzz)