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Matter-of-fact Nurul gets behind ‘fearless’ cricket as captain


Published : 24 Jul 2022 10:25 PM

Newly appointed T20I captain Nurul Hasan says that he is “normal” and not over the moon at the chance of leading Bangladesh for the first time. Nor is he too bothered about the nature of the job at hand, which at best is understood to be a stop-gap arrangement considering Shakib al Hasan is the top contender to lead the side from the Asia Cup up until the T20 World Cup.

This trait of not getting trapped in emotional sinkholes is new for Nurul, something he admits to working at over the last few years.

Nurul was in wilderness for three years before making a return to the national set-up last year and nowadays, it seems, like he can handle everything without being overly involved. Clearly, the hard lessons from his past, when he was shunted without a solid reason, are at work.

“I am not too much excited or I thrilled. Nowadays I don’t get thrilled the way I used to be,” Nurul tells Cricbuzz.

“I was informed by the BCB earlier and at that point I was surprised. Later I just felt that it’s a responsibility and I need to fulfil that. There’s nothing more to it.

“I was a very emotional guy earlier but I really worked hard in this area and I haven’t turned into who I am today all of a sudden. I worked on myself for two-three years because I felt I needed to improve in this area (controlling my emotions).”

Nurul was handed the leadership role due to his performance as a skipper in the domestic T20 competition. With his new mindset taking him to places, he’s not ready to change anything about himself when he takes over as Bangladesh’s eighth T20I captain.

“I don’t think there is a big difference in the leading side as far as domestic and international teams are concerned. At both places, the major goal is to play like a unit and I am looking forward to making sure that we can play like a team,” said Nurul.

“To be honest, I am not looking too far ahead (as far as captaincy is concerned) because for me what is important is my process and I want to do the hard work with honesty.”

“Because as a player, whether I am playing in domestic cricket or international matches, I want to make sure that I deliver what the team wants from me. I am not saying that I am delivering it all the time but I can assure you that I gave a hundred percent as far as trying is concerned. As a captain, I have to think about the team and I want to do that properly and want to create an atmosphere so that we can play as a team. When one will be happy seeing others perform, I feel that is how team culture grows. I think it is very important to develop this culture because then the result will ultimately come. I think skill-wise we are not very different from other teams but what I feel is that mentally, we have to match with others because that will be helpful for the whole team.

Nurul added that he will back his players to play fearless cricket and even in time when they fail considering he is ready to play all-out cricket in the T20s, a prerequisite to do well in the format.

“Look, I accept that we are behind in Test and T20Is compared to ODIs but what I feel is that we should play fearless cricket in T20Is. If I tell you about myself, I can say that whenever I am having fear, I am always on the back foot and so it is important we play fearless cricket.

“Certainly I will back them so that they can play freely and without fearing of losing their place because they might fail if they opt to play an aggressive brand of cricket. Look, every individual is different and plays differently and they have something that comes naturally to them.

“I am not thinking too much about the results; rather what I feel is that the process is very important. To be honest, what will happen or what kind of result we are going to achieve does not matter a lot to me because there is no point in losing your sleep thinking about the future,” Nurul added.