2024 T20 World Cup: Bangladesh coach Hathurusinghe ‘clueless’ over pitches in America

Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe is unsure of the pitchesin the USA for the 2024 T20 World Cup (in June), seeking clarity on the nature of the surface provided in Dallas and Kingstown. Though several reports have suggested how the pitch at the newly-built New York stadium will behave,said to be a drop-in-pitch, no information on its behaviour at other venues is out yet, keeping everyone on their toes.

Although Bangladesh playing Sri Lanka in Sylhet during the ongoing T20I seriesworks as a training ground for the marquee event, Hathurusinghe feels he needs good pitches to train on, something he is clueless about while travelling to America.

ALSO READ:Dharamsala Test: Rohit, Gill floor England with twin tons on day two; Bashir shines for visitors

"We are looking at a combination for the World Cup, [especially] how the individuals are fitting in and understanding the game plan and be comfortable with that," Hathurusinghe said.

"We wanted to play on good wickets here. We don't know about the wickets in America. We play two important games in America. Nobody has any clue [about the pitches]. There's not much data behind it,” the head coach added.

Sharing his thoughts on preparing for the unknown, Hathurusinghe saidthe New York one might play similar to the ones in Australia, mainly in Adelaide.

"From what I understand, New York will have a drop-in wicket from Adelaide. They will hopefully be similar to Australian pitches. There's little feedback from NSW Cricket about Dallas. Washington Freedom played there. I spoke to their GM when I was in Australia. Our recollection from St Vincent [Kingstown] is the last Test we played there. We are preparing as much as we can for these unknown factors,” Hathurusinghe added.

‘Bowlers should be ready’

Considering he expects pitches to be batting-friendly in the USA and the Caribbean, Hathurusinghe wants his bowlers to adapt to the conditions as quickly as possible.

"We know what we can do. We are continually working on [death bowling]. We are playing on different kinds of pitches now. There's more grass and carry," Hathurusinghe said.

"We wanted to play on wickets that are conducive for high scoring, to get us to understand what areas we need to improve in bowling,” he added.

Meanwhile,the third and final T20I in Sylhet will play as the decider on Saturday (March 9),with the series being tied at 1-1.