By IANS,
Brisbane : Bangladesh cricket coach Jamie Siddons has warned skipper Mohammed Ashraful of his poor form and also that the cricketer was lucky to escape the axe after another poor series.
“He’s been given a lot of positions in the order and he’s still failing. It’s disappointing for him, being the leader of the team. If it were anyone else he wouldn’t be in the side. He needs to start making runs. He knows that,” Siddons was quoted as saying by The Courier-Mail here Tuesday.
Ashraful managed only 11 runs in the three one-day losses to Australia in Darwin, and his impetuous strokeplay has frustrate his coach.
For a player of immense talent, the 24-year-old Ashraful averages just over 22 from his 128 matches.
“We talk to him about that all the time. I’m not giving out any secrets he’s probably had 50 innings for three fifties now. It’s getting close (to being dropped),” Siddons added.
Siddons went on to add that Bangladesh’s three defeats in Darwin had some positives. According to him, the series showed that Bangladeshi bowlers were good enough to restrict sides, on most wickets. However, the batsmen still had not improved their shot selection.
“A couple of guys are believing, but there’s a few who aren’t, that it requires hard work to make a big score,” he said.
“Those guys need to really look at their game and what they’re doing when they go out to bat.”