Salute to you Ebadot

Ebadot Hossain celebrated his wickets against New Zealand with a customary military-style salute which he learned from his days as an airman.

But the Test team pacer hardly got a chance to celebrate his own way as he seldom remained wicketless.

He is now playing his 11th Test match where he has already picked four wickets in the second innings giving Bangladesh a rare glimpse of hope to win a Test match against New Zealand on their own turf.

But the bowling figures of Ebadot were not that impressive previously.

A volleyball player for the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF), Ebadot broke into the scene when he won the pacer hunt in 2016, and later on, he was inducted into the high-performance program of the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

Initially, he was included in the national team’s touring party during the New Zealand tour in 2017 as a net bowler so that he can earn some experiences, he made his international debut in New Zealand two years later.

Since then, he was not among the regular starters in the Test team and he was mostly overlooked in the home matches as well.

Ebadot’s performance was not also up to the mark, in the previous 10 Test matches he picked only 11 wickets which left him with a high strike-rate of 137.4, out of 13 innings where he bowled, he was wicketless on five occasions, ended with a solitary wicket in an innings for six times. His best bowling performance was 3-91 against India in the only pink-ball Test Bangladesh played so far.

Ebadot had the speed, but lacked control over his line and length and often leaked runs which fetched him some criticism.

But the pace bowling coach Otis Gibson never lost hope on him and finally, Ebadot delivered one of the most remarkable spells by any Bangladesh pacer on Tuesday at Bay Oval.

Half an hour before the close of the play, a double strike from Ebadot in the 54th over brought Bangladesh back in the game, first, he bowled Will Young and after one ball he rattled the stumps of Henry Nicholls which turned the game around.

In his next over, Ebadot pinned Tom Blundell in front of the stumps for Leg Before Wicket, the batsman took a review but could not survive.

In the second innings, Ebadot bowled 17 overs where he got four maidens and picked up four wickets for just 39 runs which left the hosts on 147-5 at the end of day four.

Bangladesh are sensing a win from this point as New Zealand leads by only 17 runs and have the last five wickets in hand, thanks to Ebadot as his magical spell brought down New Zealand from 136-2 to 136-5, which trimmed their hope for a healthy lead.

Ebadot, while talking to the media after the end of the day’s play, said “We haven’t done well in the past in New Zealand, but this team wants to do well here this time.  We want to do better in abroad, and there’s no better place to start than here in New Zealand”, said the right-arm pacer.

 “We (the pacers) get a bit more support in the first two hours in away conditions. We are still learning how to bowl in home and away conditions. We are trying to reverse the ball when it gets old. We want to improve the pace bowling department by trying to bowl better in different conditions and with the new and old ball”, he added after delivering his career-best performance so far. Liton Das, the wicket-keeper has been a keen watcher of Ebadot’s bowling and he also told the media that the team never lost hope in him despite his dry spells,

“So, you have to give the players enough chance. We also have to consider that Bangladesh play Tests infrequently, so he doesn’t get to play regularly. Fast bowlers don’t have everything under their control”.

 “Sure, he has a high bowling average but he showed his ability today. I am hopeful that he will keep proving himself in the future too. This is only his 11th Test. A cricketer needs 15-17 Tests to understand the game. We should give him a bit of time”, told Liton to the reporters.

Ebdot sends off a batsman with a salute but the way he brought Bangladesh back into the game, strongly deserves a salute from the teammates and all the fans of Bangladesh cricket.