Neil McKenzie to become Bangladesh's batting consultant

Batting crisis and panic induced appointments in cricket are not a new story, and such have been the recent developments in Bangladeshi cricket after their recent humiliating returns on the away tours of first South Africa, and the more recent and worse woes in the Caribbean.

After a 2-0 Test series loss to an inspired Windies side, they have roped in the services of former South African opening batsman Neil McKenzie to replace ex-Sri Lankan batsman Thilan Samaraweera as the batting consultant of the side.

The appointment seems to have been made considering the recent batting struggles in both limited overs and Test match cricket in the light of the clean sweeps in India against Afghanistan in the T20Is and against Windies on their home soil where they were blown away by the home side's pace battery.

"We are expecting his arrival on July 22," BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury told reporters at Mirpur on Wednesday. "We have appointed him until the next ICC World Cup," he said. "We are confident that his vast experience will help our team, and our batsmen in particular."

McKenzie has had some experience in this arena of cricket, his 124-match international career having been followed with two stints as batting coach of South Africa, one in 2016 and one more recently in 2018. He will begin his new job for the subcontinental side ahead of Bangladesh's face-saving three-match ODI series in the Caribbean starting Guyana on July 22.

He will be in charge of all Bangladeshi campaigns up until the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2019 in England, where for the first time, the Asian underdogs will start off as one of the strong contenders, given their last outing in an ICC event, when they completed a stunning against the odds win to knock New Zealand out of the Champions Trophy as they themselves went on to play India in the semifinal of the event.