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The Bangladesh Test team is yet to recover from their poor batting against South Africa. The best possible way could be a remarkable performance against the new-look Sri Lanka team on one of the most batting-friendly surfaces in the country.
2022 has been a year of ups and downs so far for Bangladesh. Early this year, Bangladesh achieved their apex of Test cricket success so far, beating World Test Champions New Zealand in their backyard.
But soon after, they hit rock bottom in South Africa, where the Tigers were all-out for just 53 runs and 80 runs in the second innings of both Tests. Bangladesh last experienced the humiliation of getting all-out for a score of below a hundred twice in a year in 2007.
That same old fear haunted Bangladesh once again in South Africa as spinners like Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmed scythed through Bangladesh’s batting order, where the pacers were supposed to be the predators.
After coming back from South Africa, the Test cricketers did not play a single first-class match or even a practice match, rather most of them played a couple of matches in the Dhaka Premier League, a 50-overs tournament.
The deep scars aren’t supposed to heal quickly. The cricketers had only a week’s training camp before the series, which is inadequate to rectify the errors. But Mominul Haque is confident enough to come out of that trauma while playing against Sri Lanka.
“Every batsman wants to overcome their failures. We are working on it and not thinking about what happened in the past. That condition (South Africa) and this condition are totally different. The most important thing is what we do here,” he said in a press conference on Saturday.
Bangladesh have Shakib Al Hasan back in the Test team but missing two key performers, Taskin Ahmed and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, due to injury. Mominul hopes that the replacement players will perform well.
“Both of them had a good contribution to our win against New Zealand. They will be missed dearly. One of them (Miraz) is also good with the bat. They were doing very well, and it was hard for others to grab their spot. Whoever plays instead of them, I believe they will give a strong message that they are also prepared,” said Mominul at ZACS.
The flat-batting track at the ZACS forecasts that the match will be dominated by the batsman as it will have very little moisture due to hot summer weather. Mominul wants to win most of the probable 15 sessions in Chattogram to bounce back from the horrors of batting collapse in South Africa.
“I play to win. I want to win this time too, no matter what happened before. The side which can handle the pressure for the next five days will win,” said Mominul.
Sri Lanka’s Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne feels that the bowlers must have to be smart to take 20 wickets on this surface.
“It seems like a flat wicket, without anything for the bowlers. I think we have to be smart enough to get 20 wickets here. If the wickets don’t come, we still have to think smart, think out of the box,” he told the media in the pre-match press conference.
The team has a new coaching set-up, where former England coach Chris Silverwood came in as the head coach, and Naveed Nawaz joined as the assistant coach after his four-year stint as the head coach of the Bangladesh Under-19 national team.
Dimuth feels that the team’s chemistry with the new coach will form through this tour.
“He’s new. We need to get in line with how he thinks. The team, though, feels he is a good man, and this is a sentiment that was also shared by the English players when I spoke to them. We hope we can work with him nicely, but it’s too early to say many things about him. I think it’ll take time to see the impact he can make with us,” the Sri Lankan skipper said.
The Sri Lanka captain also feels that Naveed can play a big role in his new job.
“That’s a big advantage for us. Naveed Nawaz has been with the Under-19 side for a few years, but he knows the conditions. So, we can get some ideas from him,” said the left-handed opener.
