Streak explained that the goal is to get Taskin to extend his arm a bit quicker in his delivery strike © Bangladesh Team Management
Heath Streak, the Bangladesh bowling coach, has said that he is confident of Taskin Ahmed being prepared for a re-assessment of his bowling action by mid-May. Taskin and Arafat Sunny started work on their respective actions on Monday, for the first time since the two were suspended by the ICC from bowling in international cricket.
Taskin and Sunny are also likely to play in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League, the domestic one-day tournament, which is likely to start in April. Streak, who will leave Dhaka to work for IPL franchise Gujarat Lions from April 1, has asked the BCB coaches to monitor the two bowlers and liaise with him throughout the period.
“We don’t have time pressure, so I think it will take him one month to six weeks to get him to the [re-assessment] test,” Streak said. “We just need to be 100% confident before we send the request for a re-assessment. I don’t think it is a major problem for him to pass the test. He will be playing DPL [Dhaka Premier League], so, hopefully, he will be comfortable with the modifications that I have asked him to do. Then, when we are happy with everything, he can go.”
Streak explained that Taskin has to straighten his arm quicker in his delivery stride. He said that during his first independent assessment in Chennai, Taskin’s slower bouncers turned out to be illegal, which got him banned. As a result, Streak felt that there aren’t many areas to work on for the fast bowler.
“His action never really changed when I first started working with him. We never had any reason to suspect, so even I was surprised. All his fast deliveries were within legal limit. His slower bouncer was the problem, which could be because of fatigue. I don’t think it is a big problem to fix his action. It won’t take too long. I am confident he will be back into cricket.
“When it comes to his action… we are trying to get him to extend his arm a bit quicker, so that when he gets to the horizontal at the back, it is 100% straight. The 15-degree legal limit is a very small margin. He bowled something like 40 deliveries and three bouncers were illegal. It can be remedied very quickly.”
While the BCB maintains that only Taskin’s slower bouncer was found to be illegal by the independent assessment of his action, the ICC has not specified which of his deliveries were found to be illegal. In in its release announcing the news, the ICC said “not all of Taskin’s deliveries were legal”. Later an ICC spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo that Taskin was tested on yorkers, length deliveries and bouncers, and “the lab assessed that some of his deliveries were under the 15-degree tolerance, and some were over”.
A few days after Taskin’s ban, the BCB had filed a notice of review, but, on March 23, the ICC’s judicial commissioner upheld the suspension.
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo