ICC World Cup 2019 | We Know Where to Bowl to Indian Batsmen: Bangladesh Spin Bowling Coach

Bangladesh have managed to keep their 2019 World Cup campaign alive with a 62-run win over a depleted Afghanistan side on Monday (June 24). The Mashrafe Mortaza-led side's next assignment is against India and Bangladesh's spin bowling coach Sunil Joshi feels his team is ready to beat their neighbour country in their own game.

Joshi knows India will try to attack them with Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal but the 49-year-old is also confident about the spinners Bangladesh possess in their arsenal. The likes of Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan have been very consistent, while in Mosaddek Hossain and Mahmudullah Bangladesh also have decent part-time options.

“We have quality spinners, the same as India. How do you deal with them? Facing them and bowling to them it is the same. You think of it one ball at a time," said Joshi, who made 15 Test and 69 ODI appearances for India between 1996 to 2001.

“Every team has their strengths and weaknesses. I have seen India very closely when we have played them. We know where to bowl to them. It's just that we need to be consistent and we know the areas to focus on when against their spinners.”

Joshi said Bangladeshi batsmen have been very consistent against spinners and with the brand of cricket they are playing at the moment, Bangladesh have all the ingredients to topple India.

“We all know they play spin well. But so do we, we play spin very well and played it well against Afghanistan.

“We have shown in the white ball formats here and before this how we are a good side, we won in Ireland, we have beaten West Indies home and away and come close to beating India three times in the past three years.

“We have our own brand of cricket we are playing with the likes of Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim, Soumya Sarkar, Tamim Iqbal, then Mashrafe Mortaza with the ball, and the others.”

Joshi wants to bring his own experience of playing in England to bear. He admitted that he would enjoy a similar surface at Edgbaston (where they will play India on July 2) to that at the Hampshire Bowl which made life difficult for batsmen against the slow bowlers.

Lastly, Joshi was very impressed with the way Shakib has gone about his business in this tournament. The all-rounder became the first player to score more than 400 runs and take more than 10 wickets in the same edition of the World Cup.

Shakib's performance against Afghanistan saw him become only the second individual after Yuvraj Singh (vs. Ireland in 2011) and first cricketer from Bangladesh to score a half-century and take 5 wickets in the same World Cup match.

“As a spin coach, you cannot ask for more. Shakib is a legend, no doubt. It is a source of great pride that we have a player like that in the Bangladesh side. He is Mr. Consistent for us be it with the bat, the ball or in the field.

“He has really focused on his fitness and lost between five and seven kilos recently. You can see how that has paid off with his running between the wickets, you can see the hunger in his cricket. His presence is really helping us to take our whole game forward.”