We can't be Russell or Pollard even if we want to: Mahedi

Even though the power-hitting capability is a necessary skill to thrive in the T20 cricket, Bangladesh all-rounder Mahedi Hasan believes that they should play methodical cricket for their improvement in this format.

According to him, there is no point crying for a genuine power-hitter since Bangladeshi people are not born strong enough to match the power of the likes of Caribbean or other cricketers.

"We are Bangladeshi and no one is a power hitter here. Even if we want, we can't be the likes of Andre Russell of Kieron Pollard. But still we can improve in this format if we sincerely give our best," Mahedi said here today as Bangladesh T20 squad are preparing to leave the country for Zimbabwe where they will play three T20 Internationals and as many ODIs.

Wrist strength or muscle strength is believed to be required in a bid to hit sixes at will as the team always target quick runs in the power play in cricket's shortest format. While every team in the world has that type of batters in their squad, Bangladesh are the only team which are quite behind here. The lack of power hitters makes it almost impossible for them to succeed.

"As I said, we can't be Andre Russell or Pollard if we want to. We can improve as much as we can with what we have," Mahedi differed.

But he believes a power-hitting coach is required to enhance their skill to some extent.

"Yes, a power hitting coach is needed. But the skill that you have, the coach may improve it by 10 percent. But he can't improve it to 100 percent from 30 percent. We are born like this. You can't change things overnight."

Although not a power hitter, Mahedi is well known as a batter who can score runs fluently but his strike rate in T20 International doesn't quite translate his ability. He scored 222 runs in 34 T20Is with just 102 strike rate for the country. He is considered as a floater, who can bat in all position.

However, he batted most in the number eight position and he has also the  experience to open the innings. So far his highest knock is 30.

Although not successful in international T20, Mahedi's domestic performance looks better as he scored 1235 runs in 77 innings at a strike rate of 125.25.

"We've played international T20 for about 15 years. But we are not quite successful in this format. Since success isn't coming, we need to work on it more. The talk of power-hitting always comes up. But there's no point of talking about it. We cannot do it even if we want to. You all have to believe it," he concluded.