England batter David Malan admitted that representing various teams in the Bangladesh Premier League and Dhaka Premier League has helped him to learn more about playing in different conditions and also improve his game against spin.
"I think definitely (on how playing in BPL helped him to get better against spin)," he said. "The more you play in the subcontinent, the better. The more you learn skills... I am very big on trying to learn all the time. When you come to conditions like these, you face high-quality spinners.
"A lot of T20 cricket here is bowled by spin, whereas in other tournaments, you probably only have one or two spinners per team. Here, you could have three or four. And the wickets also dictate that. So you have to learn to play an attacking game and I guess a conservative game as well, because, sometimes, it's a low-scoring wicket. And when it's a high-scoring game, you have to have a game to attack. I guess you learn different ways to go about playing spin," he added.
Malan is a seasoned campaigner in Bangladesh's domestic circuit, having played for several franchises in the BPL - Barishal Bulls, Comilla Warriors and Khulna Titans. He is playing for Comilla Victorians in this edition of the tournament.
In fact, by the time he started to play in the BPL, he had already represented Prime Dholeshwar in the Dhaka Premier League in the 2013-14 season, country's traditional list A tournament played by the leading clubs of Dhaka.
"It (BPL) is one of the tournaments that I first played in. It gave me a stepping stone and it helped me learn my cricket. Not just BPL, DPL too and those tournaments helped me develop my game. Any chance I get to come to Bangladesh, I try to take that opportunity. "I think there are always different challenges in different countries. Different conditions, different pitches, different styles of play. Out here, we play at Chittagong... some of the best wickets you will ever play on. You play at Mirpur, you really don't know what you are going to get. You have to learn to adapt.
"But I guess the quality of overseas players that are usually here and the quality of the local players, it's a very good standard."
Malan, who will be featuring for Sharjah Warriors in the the International League T20, is expected to leave Dhaka after Victorians' second game, as the ILT20 is scheduled to start from January 13. The experienced cricketer is expected to return by the Eliminator stage of the tournament if Victorians manage to reach that far.
Malan's decision to not play the entire duration of BPL also brought to light the fact that the tournament is struggling to compete with other leagues in relation to attracting foreign players.
"I remember coming here, in the early days, playing against Andre Russell, Shahid Afridi, Sunil Narine, and Pollard in the same team, which was phenomenal. It was like an IPL team. The standard of overseas and quality of players has always been here, but it's about trying to get players here with all the other leagues (around). I guess that's the challenge now for the Bangladesh board and the owners to try and work out a way to get the best players here than the other ones."
He also indicated that preparing good wickets could attract some of the better players to partake in the BPL. "Sometimes the conditions here are tough, and it makes it really tough to score runs. When you go to Chittagong, you get the best batting wickets in the world.
"I guess the conditions dictate the standard of play. If you have good wickets consistently, then I reckon you will have a really good standard of play and attract really good players. And I think that's the key to playing T20 cricket, playing on the best wickets," he concluded.
