By Bipin Dani
MUMBAI, India (TheSportsNEXT) November 15, 2012: Shohag Gazi, the 21-year-old Bangladeshi off-spinner, has been advised to back himself.
Chris Gayle of West Indies welcomed the Bangladeshi bowler's Test debut by smashing his very first ball over long on for a big six.
The piece of advice has come from Australia's Gavin Robertson, whose first balls in debut Test and ODIs were hit for boundaries.
Speaking exclusively from Sydney, the 47-year old former Aussie Off-spinner said, "In 1994 I was selected to play my first one day international cricket match in Colombo, Sri Lanka. I ran into bowl to Arjuna Ranatunga, he and Ian Healy had held me up for about 2 minutes whilst having a conversation between each other. I came into bowl and lacked rhythm bowling a full toss at stomach height to Ranatunga and was quickly dispatched for 6 from my very first ball".
"My next One day game for Australia was back here in Australia , so on my debut on home soil in one day cricket I came into bowl my first ball ,and after a small pep talk from Steve Waugh who asked me to make sure I made this delivery at least bounce on the pitch, I duly came into bowl the first ball and focused on making it bounce , problem was it bounced halfway down the wicket to Graeme Hick and was duly dispatched over the square leg fence for 6 runs", Robertson added.
"Four years later in 1998 Indian Test match series I was picked to tour India and was picked in the first Test match at Chennai. I was brought onto bowl by Mark Taylor. Steve Waugh decided to give me another small pep talk and said, "Any chance of keeping this delivery inside the fence, I duly rolled into bowl to Nayan Mongia, a 5 ft 7 inch wicketkeeper-batsman who was opening the batting and obviously had the Internet and must have checked on Google that my previous two first ball deliveries on different continents were hit for the maximum".
"Mongia didn't want to spoil the story and I bowled my first ball, with good flight and shape as Mongia launched into a huge swot over the wide mid-wicket boundary, as I watched the ball sailed through the air. I only prayed for the sequence to be broken", he recalled.
"Luckily history showed the ball bounced 70 cms inside the Chennai Test ground boundary, and I finished with figure of 4 for 72 off 32 overs, I was well and truly over the first ball angst and especially over Steve Waugh’s ‘motivational' speeches".
"One thing Shane Warne always knew, you always get the ball back and the batsman has to do it again, keep bowling well until the batsman make a mistake, they will succumb to a lack of concentration and wickets come. My advice to the new bowler would be always .... BACK YOURSELF......", he concluded.
