Allan Donald credits India duo for helping Mustafizur Rahman bring out best version of himself

Bangladesh’s fast bowling coach, Allan Donald heaped massive praise on the Indian duo of Sridharan Sriram and Shrinivas Chandrasekaran for helping the Bangladesh bowlers rectify the errors and make improvements in their bowling action.

For the unversed, Sridharan Sriram and Shrinivas Chandrasekaran are currently serving as Bangladesh’s 20-20 coach and performance analyst, respectively. Donald revealed that it was the Indian duo who spotted the flaw in Mustafizur’s action, which wasn’t helping him pick a lot of wickets.

“Sriram and Shrinivas spotted that in the release point of his slower ball, his palm was facing the batter,” Donald told ESPNCricinfo on the sidelines of the opening Test that India won by 188 runs.

“It needed to be more side-on so that the palm was facing the off side on his point of release. He bowled a lot of overs to get that ball to come out softer and with a bit more bite. He worked really hard on nailing yorkers.

The former South African fast bowler heaped praise on Mustafizur Rahman and acknowledged his contribution for the team during the, recently concluded, series against India.

“He is a class act. When we needed a guy to step up against a world-class player in Rohit Sharma, Fizz came to the party and produced a great yorker to win the series for us. I love working with him. Mustafiz has been around the world. You write him off at your own peril. I know how hard he is working right now.”

Under Allan Donald as bowling coach, Bangladesh has seen a rise in their fast bowling department. The emergence of the likes of Ebadot Hossain, Taskin Ahmed has been heartening to see.

“I coach mindset. I can be technical if I want to, but at this level, you can have the best plans in the world, but you must have the desire and the mongrel in your belly, you won’t get past anyone.

“I think slowly but surely we are starting to see this growing in this group. This excites me,” the 56-year-old said.