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Once Bangladesh's Best Batter, Ashraful Now Getting Praised By BCB For 2nd Innings
Follow UsHis second innings as a batting coach has been appreciated by the BCB
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) have extended the contract of their batting coach, Mohammad Ashraful, who was first hired only for the home series against Ireland. Now, he will remain with the team till the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held in India and Sri Lanka in February and March.
Ashraful, touted to be one of the best batters produced in the early phase of Bangladesh cricket’s international exposure, played 61 Tests, 177 ODIs and 23 T20Is between 2001 and 2013, amassing a total of 6,655 international runs while taking 47 wickets alongside.
Ashraful hit a Test century on debut to become the youngest Test centurion in the history of world cricket, a record that is yet to be broken. He was touted to be one of the best talents that Bangladesh produced, but inconsistency and, later on, his involvement with corrupt practices in the early stages of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) ended his international cricket ambitions quite earlier than he would have expected.
But his second innings as a batting coach has been appreciated by the BCB. The board’s operations manager, Nazmul Abedeen, was impressed by Ashraful’s potential and sees him as a long-term coaching prospect.
"Ashraful will continue as our batting coach. Well, it's his early days as a coach, but I've been hearing him talk for a long time. He talks on TV, says this and that,” Nazmul was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
"Understanding batting is one thing, coaching is another. The characteristics needed for coaching are in him. He has a real interest in it. He's not coming here just to make or secure a career. He enjoys it and he is learning very fast. He is doing well,” he added.
Before the T20 World Cup 2026, Bangladesh players will be involved in the BPL 2025-26, which will end in the last week of January. The T20 World Cup will kick off on February 7.