Home ›› 01 Dec 2021 ›› Sport
Debutant Yasir Ali Chowdhury scored his first runs in international cricket with a graceful-looking cover drive against Shaheen Shah Afridi at his hometown Chattogram, which could be the prologue of a fairytale story.
But just after a few balls, Yasir found his leg-stump cartwheeling as he failed to judge an incoming delivery from Hasan Ali, who foxed him with an inswinging delivery that went through the big gap between his bat and pad.
In a nutshell, that is Test cricket for Bangladesh. A flashy start drew applause, but soon the weak points were discovered, and the opposition ransacked through that gap.
The deviation between the standards of the domestic first-class tournament and Test cricket is such that it will need a bridge as big as a megastructure to join both ends. In addition, there is whimsical decision-making by the top brass of the cricket administration, which also makes things more complex, and at the end of the day, it is the team and the players who suffer most.
For example, Bangladesh national selectors added two pacers the night before the Chattogram Test, whereas Pakistan declared the 12 men squad almost 24 hours before the game.
Bangladesh had a total of five pacers in the 18-member squad for the Chattogram Test. Two made it to the playing XI, and out of them, Abu Jayed Rahi only bowled 16 overs in the entire match and remained wicketless.
On a batting-friendly surface, a pacer must have special skills or qualities to take wickets, which Rahi clearly lacks but still, the team management opted for him. It was possibly because of his six wickets in the last round of the National Cricket League before the Test series.
But on the same surface, Hasan Ali and Shaheen shared 14 wickets and took one five-wicket haul each.
Shaheen and Rahi made their debut in the same year, 2018, and Hasan just a year earlier. The number of matches they have played is also close as Shaheen has played 20, Hasan 16 and Rahi 13, but the difference in numbers is huge.
Shaheen has 83 wickets in Test, Hasan has 70, and Abu Jayed has only 30 despite being the first-choice pacer in Tests for Bangladesh.
Bangladesh were not just no competition for Pakistan in the fast bowling department, a perpetual forte for the visitors, but also failed to bridge the gap with Pakistan in batting.
22-year-old Abdullah Shafique, who made his debut for Pakistan in Chattogram, had played only three first-class matches before coming to Bangladesh. He made 52 and 73 in his debut Test and formed century partnerships in both innings with Abid Ali.
On the contrary, Shadman Islam came to play this match after scoring 75, 12,79, 132, and 62 in his last five first-class matches. He was playing his ninth Test and managed only 14 and 1 at Chattogram.
Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo, possibly one of the most criticised people in the country’s cricket, said some harsh truth in a press conference on Monday.
“Saif is still playing his fifth or sixth Test. He is very inexperienced. Shadman has played maybe 10. It has been tough for them against high-quality bowlers. I don’t know if Saif has played this sort of intensity and pressure before. Yasir came to me after the day’s play yesterday and said that he has never been involved in this intense battle before on a cricket field,” he said about the quality of the batsmen.
“Bangladesh are in a very difficult situation. When we play on good wickets, we might not have the firepower to bowl sides out, as Pakistan might have. Bangladesh seamers struggle historically on good wickets. We just can’t seem to sustain for a longer period of time. It is very frustrating,” Domingo said.
It is the job of the coaching staff to improve the skill level so that players can tackle the challenges at the international level but also the players should also take the blame as they are continuously failing to prove themselves, especially the younger ones who showed high promises.
Test captain Mominul Haque also got critical about the poor performing youngsters.
“In your office, if you cannot get the job done with junior staff, then definitely you will have to make a change. If you can’t get the job done with inexperienced juniors, you must switch to someone experienced who can do the job. We must also think in that way,” Mominul told the media on Tuesday.
“The solutions for the problems should be discovered at the personal level. Starting from Saif (Hasan), everyone has to find out the problem and solve that. When there is a gap in the fixture, they must work on their problems,” he added.
