Bangladesh pace bowling all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin returned to T20I set-up after a gap of one and a half years. He made a return to competitive cricket with the just concluded BPL after a long injury layoff. In an exclusive chat with Cricbuzz, he spoke about his days in wilderness along with the new slingy action that he is trying to adapt after watching Nuwan Thusara.

Here are the excerpts

Alhamdulillah it was good. The team became champions on the back of my small contributions so I am happy for it.

When I was doing the strength training and rehabilitation in Mirpur at that point I had to climb stairs in the gallery with a weight jacket and after one or two sets I would get tired. When I could not move my legs at that point the physio said when you will get the wickets in BPL you look at the stairs in the gallery and you will feel good inside thinking that at one point I worked really hard to get here. Now there is no one in the gallery but when you will play the stadium will be filled with spectators and I really felt that when I bowled in the semi-final and final match. It really was a boost.

(Laughs) To be honest I don't want to remember it. This was a long, tiring journey and it was really stressful mentally.

In Qatar they gave a pain reliving injection and after the injection they wanted to start my rehabilitation and they said after four weeks have some light stressing and gym work to prepare for the BCL. At that point our rehabilitation manager Kieron Thomas told me that I should do the rehabilitation for longer period because if I play I can be in and out and after talking with him I decided to lengthen my rehabilitation process for two to three months. I think that was decision was good as I did not do anything in a hurry and he said if I miss half of the BPL but still that is ok because if I can give my best in two or three matches everyone will notice me. So that is the reason I did not want to do anything in a hurry.

Because my bowling was restricted as I started my bowling from the end of December, (but) my batting was available from September-October and I worked on my batting. Now I'm getting the results.

If I get only four balls I will try to whack all of them and if come out to bat with three to four overs left I think if I can see one or two balls and I try to bat according to the situation like if I need 25 runs from 10 balls in that case you cannot take one or two balls to get set rather you will have to hit from the first ball.

Actually I don't like to bowl a lot in the nets because all the time I am thinking about my bowling and in the YouTube I see what kind of deliveries different bowlers are trying. Couple of days back I was seeing Nuwan Thusara, a slingy action bowler of Sri Lanka who picked wickets against Bangladesh, and I saw his bowling earlier in the South Africa T20 and he don't bowl with lot of pace - he delivers around 130 to 135 plus - and after seeing him I felt let me try this because in T20 the more variations you have the better you are. In IPL I am also seeing 140+ bowling is easy to bat unless there is variations and because there's T20 World Cup looming I am thinking about all those things and that is the reason during BPL I tried to add new things in my bowling. Because I am injury prone so I cannot increase my pace... so I feel that if I control my variations and swing with my pace that is 130 or 132 I can survive.

Look, I am a medium fast bowler and not a fast bowler. I need to have control on my bowling because I am bowling the 18 or 20th over in franchise cricket in BPL and so my pace variations are very important I can survive especially in international cricket. We play a lot in Mirpur and so the conditions are known and lot of things happen easily but to be honest we don't play a lot abroad and as we don't have the experience of playing outside Bangladesh we fail to get result. I see games played in different venues in the YouTube and try to learn from it.

I have two plans. One is if there is a set batter I want to give him a single and take him to the non-striker end and if there is a new batter I just try to end my overs quickly by focusing on bowling dot balls. If I am hit for a boundary in the first ball I focus on completing the over giving away 12 to 13 runs because if I try to bowl dot in that case it might misfire so it depends on the batters and at times the ground also matters like if one side is smaller and another side is bigger in that case I try to bowl wide yorker when I am bowling in the longer side and when the leg side is bigger I go for straight yorker or slow bouncer and all this thing varies according to opponents and from which end the wind is blowing. The plan changes on the basis of how the wicket is reacting like whether the cutter is gripping or the ball is carrying so nothing is pre-planned in those overs.

I am enjoying the competition but not thinking about... I just need to do my work and team will pick whoever does well. Whenever I was thinking like there so much competition and all those things my performance went down and so I don't think about it because I believe if I can give my best no one can beat me. It is not worthwhile if there is no challenge and from the start of my career I am always living on challenges. If there is no stress there is no charm in life.

Look lot of things are being said about me after being hit by David Miller for five sixes or in 2019 when it came out that I am afraid to play against big teams or I am playing by hiding my injuries. Now nothing bothers me and I am focused on performing on the ground and living my life like the way I want to and I am not too focused on giving attention to things that happen off the field. Because there is no benefit, rather it is harmful for me mentally and physically. I know there will be criticism if I play badly and praise if I do good but no point losing my sleep over it.