Afif: I Had No Confidence Under Hathurusingha's Coaching

In this year's BPL, a massive six of 103 meters was hit by Afif Hossain Dhruvo. During the tenure of former Bangladesh national team head coach Chandika Hathurusingha, this aggressive Afif had lost his confidence. Currently, Afif sees no issues with his cricket, and believes he is in great rhythm.

After Hathurusingha's departure as head coach, Afif returned to the national team nearly a year later during the West Indies tour. Although he couldn’t deliver impressive performances against the West Indies, Afif regained his rhythm. Playing for Khulna Tigers in the BPL, this star all-rounder spoke about his reality. Despite playing in the West Indies series, Afif didn’t make the squad for the Champions Trophy, yet he feels no regrets.

Afif revealed that he had been struggling with a lack of confidence under former head coach Chandika Hathurusingha. It was a phase that kept him from performing consistently. Reflecting on the last 7-8 months, Afif shared:

"For the past seven-eight months, I had been facing some issues… with confidence. Especially when we had our last coach (Hathurusingha), during that time I was really struggling with my confidence."

"At the moment, I don’t think I’m facing any issues. I’m in great rhythm. The things I’m working on, I hope they’ll bring me good performances in the future."

In the most recent ODI series against the West Indies, Afif scored 28, 24, and 15 runs. Following that, during the T20 series in the Caribbean, he scored 8 runs off 11 balls in one match. The selectors thus lost faith in him. In the BPL too, big runs were eluding him, but his 56-run knock off 42 balls against a strong Rajshahi Royals side has helped boost his confidence.