Fast bowler Al-Amin Hossain expressed his contentment over getting a call-up in the elite players’ camp as he sensed an opportunity to revive his international career after being ignored on several occasions. The reason behind the repeated ignorance is believed to breach the team’s protocol during the ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia but the fast bowler who had performed augurs well throughout the 2014 passionately waited for another call-up. And as it happened, he said the camp with the other first choice players would help him to be in the process, knowing that he would face a stern test to get into the national fold once again.
“It was very important for me to be in touch with the cricket and train hard. I believe the inclusion into the conditioning camp will help me to be in the process,” Al-Amin told the reporters yesterday. With new pacers like Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Mohammad Shahid doing quite well alongside Rubel Hossain, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Al-Amin’s chance looked bleak at the moment to be back in the groove. But he had no reservation to wait for a prolonged time as he craved for donning the national team’s jersey once again.
After a magnificent start to the national set up, Al-Amin’s career was firstly jeopardised when he was reported for illegal bowling action during the West Indies tour in 2014, the same tour in which off-spinner Sohag Gazi was also reported. Both of them however successfully corrected their bowling action before getting another setback. While Al-Amin broke the team’s protocol by returning team hotel after the scheduled time, Gazi was criticized to loss his bite. Gazi’s fitness was also questioned after he made a short comeback in T20 cricket during the series against South Africa in which he failed to make any impact.
Gazi, the only cricketer in the Test history to score a hundred and claiming five-wicket including a hat-trick said, he is keen to prove his worth again.
“There were few questions regarding my fitness and I think I can work out on that in the training camp,” he said. “It feels good to be among the elite players after being picked up in the conditioning camp. I was a bit upset after not getting calls for any such programmes in the past after correcting my bowling action. It would be helpful to regain my fitness and form.” Like Al-Amin he also knew that returning to the national fold at the moment is very tough given the current batch of players have been playing amazingly well.
“Bangladesh are playing brilliant cricket at the moment, specially in the ODI and I think there are huge competition in the team and every one is performing,” he pointed out. “And there are good set of players who can replace if someone fail to perform. I have to work hard and correct my mistakes firstly to reinforce my case. I am working both on my bowling and batting,” he revealed. The formal training session of elite group is due to start on August 22. Meanwhile a number of players of elite group are attending fitness training under BCB coach Sarwar Imran at BCB Academy gymnasium.