Sohel Islam, who is currently the head coach of Bangladesh Tigers programme believes that Bangladeshi spinners have found success in the ongoing Test series against Pakistan by adopting a patient and calculated approach.

Reflecting on the performance of Bangladesh’s spin bowlers in the Test series opener against Pakistan, Islam highlighted the importance of the mindset shift that has contributed to their success.

"I think the spinners are bowling with a different mind-set now when they are playing abroad compared to how we bowled before in foreign conditions and now you will notice that our spinners can bowl for extended periods even when the pitch doesn't offer much support," Islam said.

"When we last toured Sri Lanka (2021), I was the spin bowling coach. As you know, their wickets aren't very spin-friendly. If you play regularly on pitches that are suitable for a spinner which is the case in our country, you'll naturally adopt an aggressive mindset considering you are picking a wicket by bowling five to seven overs," he further added.

"In the past, when we took that aggressive mindset abroad-whether it was South Africa, Australia, or Sri Lanka, we would often become mentally unsettled after bowling five to six overs without taking a wicket and get puzzled, suddenly a sense of urgency grows as we start questioning ourselves why the wickets weren't coming," he continued.

To overcome this, the team decided to shift away from aggression and focus on consistency and patience. 

"During that series (against Sri Lanka) we had to shift away from that aggressive mindset and we decided that even if we didn't get any wickets we would keep bowling throughout the day in the right areas without trying to force anything," Islam elaborated. 

This approach paid off in their recent match against Pakistan, where spinners maintained their accuracy even when the pitch offered little assistance.

"Look at the last Test (against Pakistan), you saw that in the first innings when the pitch wasn't offering much assistance, we focused on maintaining accuracy rather than rushing," he further added.

Islam emphasized the importance of patience and waiting for the right moment to exploit the conditions. 

"Despite the intense heat we knew that by the fourth or fifth day the pitch would begin to crack and opportunities would arise. The key is to be patient and wait for the game to turn in your favour. As a spin bowling unit, you need to wait for that moment when you can start exploiting the condition.

"Bowlers must understand how to bowl when the advantage isn't with them and wait for the right moment to bring the tricks out of their sleeves. I am happy that we did exactly that against Pakistan in the opening Test." Islam stated.

Speaking on the performance of Shakib al Hasan, Islam stated that he is not suprised to see Shakib excel with the ball despite not playing red-ball cricket quite regularly.

"I don't think he is affected by outside noise and it has been the case for a long time now if you closely follow his career and so his performance was not surprising at all (despite being surrounded by recent controversy).

"I believe his bowling is very natural. He can bowl effortlessly if he wants to. If you ask him to bowl all day, he can do it. But it depends on whether he wants to or not. He has an extraordinary ability to read batters. He can quickly figure out what type of delivery to bowl to a particular batter or what approach to take based on the pitch conditions," he concluded.