Australia call left-arm spinner Ashton Agar to deal with Bangladesh star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan’s spin bowling ahead of the clash between these two teams in ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 on Thursday, June 18 at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

Australia seek Ashton Agar in nets to counter Shakib
Australia call left-arm spinner Ashton Agar to deal with Bangladesh star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan’s spin bowling ahead of the clash between these two teams in ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 on Thursday, June 18 at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

Ashton-Agar-in-Australian-nets ICC CWC 2019

The no. 1 ODI all-rounder, Shakib had been in superb form in the ongoing World Cup as he’s the highest run-scorer scorer in the tournament till now with 384 runs in just four innings at the average of 128.00 having two centuries and two half-centuries.

He’s not only superb in the batting but also he scalped five wickets with his bowling.

As a result, the slow left-arm orthodox Ashton Agar who is currently in England as a part of Australia A squad has been included in the Australia’s training session two days out from a World Cup encounter.

Australia asked help from Agar to help the team to negotiate with Shakib Al Hasan in their next match against Bangladesh. This also indicated that Australia hadn’t taken Bangladesh as an easy opponent and so they left no stone unturned in their preparation to confirm a semi-final spot.

“Shakib is likely the world’s best allrounder and a left-arm spinner,” said Australia coach Justin Langer.

“It was incredible of Ash (Ashton Agar) to come down and extraordinary to have him here. This time a year ago he was in the Australian one-day side. One of our qualities is professionalism and it’s useful to draw on somebody like Ashton Agar to come in and give us a like for like (spinner).”

Australia assistant coach Ricky Ponting also praised Shakib Al Hasan much and warned his team that how dangerous Shakib could be with ball in his hand.

“When you talk about smarts and being clever, when he has the ball in his hand, he absolutely is that. I mean he’s never been a major turner of the ball, however he switches his pace up truly well and appears to be truly assaulting,” Ponting said.

He utilizes the air more than most spinners do nowadays. Most spinners nowadays in white ball cricket will keep running in, simply attempt and bowl the ball into the pitch and not give batsmen scoring openings, however he’s the other way.

“He’ll keep you in your crease for the primary couple of balls and afterward truly switch the pace up, get this show on the road the ball over your eye line and sit tight for the batsmen to take him on.

“He’s played for quite a while now globally and he’s been engaged with Big Bash, he’s been associated with the IPL for the last six or seven seasons.

“If you go through that Bangladesh group, presumably him and opener Tamim Iqbal are the folks you’ll be paying special mind to in the World Cup,” the World Cup winning captain Ponting said.