Taylor hopes for Khulna reverse swing

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Cricket365
November 2, 2014

Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor is hoping his fast bowlers do the job in the second Test against Bangladesh, punting them to get some reverse swing and compensate for their lack of decent spinners.

The game takes place in Khulna, which is a good batting track and not one that spins much, but Taylor feels that even though the bounce is low, the roughness of the track will help his fast bowlers.

When asked if his bowlers had the ability to get reverse swing, he said: "Yes, they do. It's an abrasive surface and the ball will get scuffed up.

"They have done it in Test matches at home where the pitches have been less rough. I have no doubt they can do it here. I don't think there is going to be that kind of bounce, but I think our bowlers have the skill and control to contain and take wickets.

"Our seam bowlers are good enough to adapt. I feel they are good enough to strike with the new ball, I feel they are good enough to reverse the ball. That's a danger to any batsman when the ball is reversing and hopefully we can do that."

Taylor's reliance on pace was not surprising, given how poorly the spinners did in Dhaka. While the Tigers were excellent, with Taijul Islam taking eight wickets in one innings, Zimbabwe's spinners were ineffective.

Taylor said of the situation: "We have got reserves in our spin department but we have yet to sit down with the coach and the convenor of selectors to make a decision on that.

"It has been a big topic of discussion and we are going to do it this evening, and see how we can fine tune our spin department.

"We are not as blessed as Bangladesh in our spin department. We proved to be a good unit in Dhaka with our seam bowlers. Yes we are aware the pitch is going to be different but we have got what we've got and we've got to make use of it."

On the same theme, their batting against spin was very poor, all out for 114 in their second innings, and Taylor said they had been working hard on improving that: "We have worked really hard.

"We have done some specific spin drills to counter their spinners. But in saying that, they are going to turn up and make it very difficult for us. They play extremely well at home. But we have played a number of times.

"We were very sloppy in Dhaka in losing our wickets, so our batters are pretty determined right now. We would like to prove to everybody that we are good players of spin."