Freedom is necessary to perform, says Imrul

Chattogram Challengers batsman Imrul Kayes has said that freedom of being in the team is necessary for the players to do well. 

In a press conference after Chattogram's win against Sylhet Thunder, Imrul opened up about his match-winning knock, his career and the national side. 

Imrul said that it is necessary for players to have the freedom of being in the team to play well. He said, "If you don't score in a match for the national team, it becomes difficult to play in the next matches. Here (in BPL) I know that I will play all the matches despite how my performances are. This freedom is very important to play well, when you have this freedom, your game changes."

Imrul was set to be the captain of Chattogram Challengers in the absence of their regular skipper Mahmudullah Riyad, but it was Rayad Emrit who led the side on the day. Enquired about this, Imrul replied, "Captaincy is the decision of the team management. They elected the one who they felt would be better for the team. Our captain (Rayad Emrit) is an experienced captain, he has captained a lot of times."

Imrul was satisfied with his performance and said that he did not take any pressure about the run chase. He added, "I am very pleased with my performance. Because I was batting under pressure. I tried throughout my innings, I enjoyed it out there. I did not take much pressure, rather I took it as a challenge."

He also planned his innings out and he revealed his plan in the presser. "I know the local bowlers well. So my plan was to be at the crease until late in the innings. I knew that even if I took time early in the innings, I will get the opportunity to recover it later."

Imrul batted at no.4 on the day, which is not his regular batting position. Questioned if he was planning this for the World Cup T20 next year, he said, "I don't think of the future anymore. It is better to focus on wherever I am playing. T20 World Cup is still far away, there is no point of being tensed about it now."

Questioned if he faced criticism more than the others, he replied, "There will be criticism. You won't be criticized unless you are famous."

"I am never upset with my career. I feel lucky every time I get the opportunity to play for the national side. Yes maybe my career could have been longer, but it did not and there is no point repenting for it. My target is to play good cricket in the remaining years," he further added.

Imrul also said that better preparations were required for better Test results. He said, "Our Test preparations should be better. It is difficult for us to play well with 2-4 days of preparation or after playing against national level bowlers."

Imrul said that it was good for him that he started this BPL well and he is looking forward to continuing playing well. He said, "I did not start well in the previous BPL editions, but this time I have started well. You get a boost in confidence if you start well, and I will try to continue playing well with this newfound confidence."

Sylhet Thunder skipper Mosaddek Hossain was the first to attend the press conference and he emphasized on the fact that Sylhet were 15-20 runs short and that had a massive impact on the results.

He said, "Our start was good, but two quick wickets held us back a bit. We should have scored around 170-175 after the way Mithun bhai played. If we had scored those 15-20 runs, the result could have been different."

He also added that the side played well but it was small mistakes which took the game away from them.

Mosaddek himself played a relevant slow innings of 29 runs off 35 deliveries, which did not match the situation. Asked about this, Mosaddek said, "It is actually tough to predict what to do at that moment. Maybe I needed to score 40-45 runs in the deliveries I faced, we lacked those 10-15 runs."

Mosaddek praised the wicket saying that it was good as both the sides scored runs on the day. 

There was a massive controversy about Mosaddek's teammate Krishmar Santokie, who bowled a massive wide and a no-ball in the same over, replays showing that Santokie overstepped by quite some distance. Mosaddek said that he did not see it at the moment. He said, "I actually did not even notice it, so it would be unwise of me to say something about it."