'He has to keep pushing' - Simmons throws challenge to Sarkar

"Nothing in life surprises me anymore."

Phil Simmons, said on Wednesday, when his attention was drawn towards the frequent changes in the Bangladesh Cricket Board's higher-ups. Simmons, who was appointed by former BCB president Faruque Ahmed in 2024, has also seen the regime of Aminul Isam and is now working under Tamim Iqbal, who is running the show as the ad-hoc committee chairman after National Sports Council dissolved the Aminul-led board.

Simmons insisted that off-field issues have not affected the players or their preparation for the upcoming white-ball series against New Zealand, which is set to begin on April 17, despite the administrative upheaval.

"First of all, it doesn't affect what we do, how we train, and it doesn't affect the camp that we had. It was planned and it was carried out," Simmons said when asked about the developments.

"If you ask how it affects the players, you'll have to ask the players because I can't really see any psychological effect. They did all the work, worked as hard as they usually do, and even harder in some cases. So they're still doing all that's needed in preparation for this series," he added.

He hinted that Bangladesh are likely to continue with the opening pair of Tanzid Hasan Tamim and Saif Hassan for at least the first two ODIs against New Zealand.

"I think we've sort of settled because we've had a good partnership in the last series, and then in the warm-up game here, Saif showed that he's getting back to what we expect him to be. So I think we're settled for now," Simmons said.

However, another opening batter, Soumya Sarkar - despite scoring a match-winning 91 against the West Indies - has been out of the playing XI since last October.

"My thoughts are still the same. Soumya is excellent. He played well against West Indies. We had to make that choice. He missed a lot of cricket between the West Indies series, during the BPL, and leading up to the BCL. So we had to make that decision and, unfortunately for him, the others did well. So he has to keep pushing to get back in," he said.

Simmons added that it's an area of concern that middle order batters in the national team do not play in that positions when they return to domestic cricket. Notably, Afif Hossain, who batted at number six during the Pakistan series, usually bats at number four in domestic cricket.

Other squad members, including Litton Das, Mahidul Islam Ankon, Towhid Hridoy and captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz, also tend to bat higher up the order domestically compared to their international roles. There have also been instances where players expressed dissatisfaction over batting positions at the international level - a mindset Simmons appears reluctant to encourage.

"Well, it seems like all our batters bat in the top order in domestic cricket. It's the same for Miraz, it's the same for Ankon - everyone seems to bat up the order," Simmons said.

"But when they come here, they have to fit into different roles. So far, the players have been trying very hard to adapt. I think that's one of the key aspects of international cricket - you have to adjust to what is required, not necessarily what you are used to in domestic cricket," he added.

Simmons also stressed that Bangladesh needed improvement across all phases of batting, not just the lower middle order. "We have room to improve in every aspect of our game, especially in batting. There's a lot of scope for improvement from the top order through to numbers five, six, seven and eight. We are continuously working to make sure we improve," he said.