Exposing lesser experienced players to quality opposition is massive: Rob Walter

Ahead of New Zealand coach Rob Walter's pre-series press conference at Mirpur, there was a debate going on between two renowned photo journalists of Bangladesh surrounding familiarity with cricketers of the touring party.

"I know four, what about you?," asked one to another who found it difficult to match him.

They cannot be judged for not recognizing the New Zealand cricketers considering the fact that visitors arrived without several key cricketers, who are involved in the ongoing Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League while their A team is currently touring Sri Lanka.

The visitors did not include cricketers from the A team for their white-ball series against Bangladesh and it seemed to be their mantra of success on a long-term basis.

While Bangladesh brought back pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman, Nahid Rana, Shoriful Islam, Tanzid Hasan and Rishad Hossain from the PSL to play in the ODIs against New Zealand, the visitors opted to move in a different direction altogether. It seems head coach Rob Walter is pretty happy with it, considering that it will help them to increase their pool of cricketers.

"No, at the end of the day, if you send our entire team to Sri Lanka and then bring them here, you've missed out on an opportunity to give 12 other players the opportunity to develop their skills in Sri Lanka, right? So, we try not to do that," Walter told reporters ahead of their ODI series against Bangladesh, scheduled to commence at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on April 17.

"We try to use our opportunities as much as we possibly can. I mean, it's been reported we've got 54 New Zealand cricketers playing right now in different parts of the world-be that IPL, PSL, here, and in Sri Lanka," he said.

"That's just under half of our contracted players in the country. So for us, it's a massive positive. Giving a large number of players international experience at different levels, trying to make sure that we strengthen our whole system and not just a small group of players. And we understand that the international world of cricket is challenging because a lot of players are getting pulled in different directions, and ultimately, we have to take care of that and make sure we're ready-whoever we compete against, we've got a number of cricketers who are internationally ready. So, using whatever opportunities and tours we can, we like to use those as smartly as we possibly can," he said.

"Look, obviously it's always a plus for us to expose, if you wanted to call them our "next in line" cricketers, to quality opposition. I think this Bangladesh side is a quality team-they've shown that in just recently beating Pakistan. So, being able to expose our sort of lesser experienced players to quality opposition in foreign conditions is a massive positive for us," he said.

"You can't buy experience, you know, you have to actually get out into the cauldron and actually play. And so we have that opportunity with this group to put them in those experiences-in those conditions against good opposition, see how their game stacks up. Most importantly, we just keep learning. You know, our main driver is to keep learning and get better as cricketers and as a unit, and so we'll continue to do that," he added.

Walter said the revised match timings for the series will add an extra layer of challenge, but insisted that his side has no option but to adapt to the conditions.

Originally scheduled for a 2pm start, matches have now been pushed forward by nearly four hours due to the ongoing fuel situation in Bangladesh, meaning players will be required to play the entire game under intense afternoon heat.

"I mean, there's not a hell of a lot you can do in a couple of days from a preparation point of view. At the end of the day it is what it is, and totally understandable for the change to be made. We just have to adapt to the conditions, be ready to deal with the heat. It is just one of the challenges," said Walter.

"The other big challenge is the opposition, so we've got a number of things that we have to consider in the game and the heat is just one of them," he said, adding that as there will be less dew, he is expecting it to be a fair contest.

"But then on the flip side of that, you're probably having to deal with a pitch that may potentially slow up a little bit, being in the heat the whole day," he added.

Walter said that his side had limited time to adjust following the end of their domestic season, although some players have already had exposure to subcontinental conditions through recent assignments.

"We obviously didn't finish our season too long ago. Over the last couple of weeks, a few guys have been in Sri Lanka and others have been with their provinces preparing for this tour," he said.

"It's obviously different, but we'd expect that coming in here. A couple of days prior to the first game is probably not enough to get fully used to it, but we knew that in the lead-up," Walter said.