SH: How are you passing time during this worldwide lockdown, and when there are no cricketing activities around?
RD: Just spending time at home, family time, and obviously chatting to the groups of players who are in Bangladesh, connecting with my coaches, reading up on the game. But other than that, just being at home.
SH: What is your advice for the cricketers to pass this boring time, as they must have concerns with their fitness?
RD: I think number one is to stay safe. Make sure that they adhere to the protocols that have been set. Number two, they've all been saying fitness programs to try and keep as active as they possibly can. And number three, to just make sure that they freshen up and get ready to play when we do start playing.
SH: In the post-coronavirus world, many changes might come in the cricketing world: such as players might be prohibited to avoid the use of saliva to shine the ball, they might be advised to avoid handshakes- your thoughts on it?
RD: I'm not too sure about it, but there's obviously going to be some changes. I don't think the world's going to be the same, but we'll have to think about those aspects once we start playing and come up with some team protocols and decisions that we can all stick to.
SH: How difficult will it be to start playing cricket again for the cricketers who have been stuck at home for a long time?
RD: It's not going to be easy to start playing again, I think we will need some time together as a team to get fit technically, mentally and physically. I don't think it's a matter of just rushing back and playing three, four days after we get together again.
SH: Alongside Zimbabwe series, Bangladesh were playing against Pakistan where they failed to win any game. Do you think this break, though it’s unexpected, will help the team regroup and do better?
RD: We started to get some good momentum in the Zimbabwe series. A lot of players played a lot of cricket so might not be a bad thing for some of them to have a break as well.
SH: With Tamim Iqbal being the ODI captain, Bangladesh are under three captains in three different formats. How do you see this? Does it really help?
RD: I don't think it's a bad thing. Always good to spread the leadership. The more leaders you have in the team, the better it will be. Obviously, there are some challenges having to work with three different captains all the time, but the more leaders we have in the team, the better it is.
SH: While Mahmudullah already proved his mettle as a captain in T20Is, Mominul also is learning the way how to lead a Test team, what about Tamim? What do you expect from him?
RD: I don't think it will be difficult for Tamim to step into the leadership role. He is already a senior player in the team. He has played leadership roles before. I really enjoyed working with him over the past couple of months. He's got some good thinking on the game. At the same time, he is one of the leading run-scorers for Bangladesh. So I think he'll do a fantastic job.
SH: After you take over the rule of the head coach, we have seen a good number of young players come in. Are you happy with their performance so far?
RD: It’s always good to get some young players in the team, but importantly that those young players contribute. I don't think it helps anybody just throwing young players in, and they don't perform. We're fortunate that some of these young players are putting in some good performances, so that's exciting to see.
SH: Abu Jayed Rahi and Ebadat Hossain are the main bowlers of Bangladesh’s Test set-up. What are your thoughts about having more pacers in the core set-up?
RD: Ebadat and Rahi are the two leading bowlers we got at the moment, but there are some good young bowlers around; young Hasan Mahmud coming to T-20 and he's very exciting to see. So the more core fast bowlers we can have in the group, the better it will be, particularly when we play away from home. So that's a big focus point for us.
SH: Where do you want to see Bangladesh team in the next couple of years or after that?
RD: I think we need to win some Test matches away from home. That is a big goal for us to try and win an away series. So once we achieve those goals, we need to reset again. But that for us is a big goal at the moment.