Tigers looking for stable pace attack

Bangladesh have an injury crisis going on in their pace attack, and that has once again led to a search for a stable pace attack.

Since the start of 2021, Bangladesh have had a stable pace battery, which included Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Abu Jayed Rahi, and Shoriful Islam.

Taskin was injured during the South Africa series, and Shoriful got injured during the first Test against Sri Lanka, leaving only Ebadot and Khaled as the only pacers available for the second Test with prior experience.

Taskin and Shoriful might be unavailable for the Test series against West Indies next month, making the selectors try and bring Mustafizur Rahman, who last played a Test match in February 2021 and opted out of the central contract for Tests, back in the red-ball fray for the West Indies tour, where pacers will find help from the surface.

“There is no possibility of Shoriful playing in the Tests, we might get him back for the white-ball formats. According to the information we have, we probably won’t get Taskin in the Tests, we might get his services in the white-ball formats,” Bangladesh national team chief selector Minhazul Abedin said.

In the last five years, Bangladesh have played 31 Tests. In this period, they have used 11 frontline pacers, but none have played more than half of those Tests. The highest played by is Ebadot, who has played 14, with Abu Jayed playing 13.

Among those 11, five pacers, Rubel Hossain, Al-Amin Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Subashis Roy, and Kamrul Islam Rabbi, have played less than five matches in that period.

Since the start of 2021, Bangladesh had become more consistent with their pacer picks, with Ebadot, Taskin, Shoriful, Khaled and Rahi forming the pace core of the team.

Abu Jayed is the Tigers’ most productive pacer with 30 wickets in the last five years, and Ebadot is the second with 25. But the consistency which was seen earlier vapoured when Rahi was dropped from the central contract for Tests, despite him being the most successful Bangladesh pacer throughout the last few years.

Why the selectors are considering Mustafiz is clear in the stats as he is Bangladesh’s third-highest wicket-taking pacer in the last five pacers with 18 wickets.

While his Test experience is questioned, the answer might have already been given by Bangladesh skipper Mominul Haque.

“I don’t know many Tests Mustafiz has played, but none of our fast bowlers is experienced. I doubt they have played 20 Tests together,” he said in the post-match press conference after the first Test in Chattogram.

Since the Pakistan series at home, Bangladesh have played Ebadot in the next four but was dropped against Sri Lanka, only two Tests after his heroics at Mount Maunganui. Rahi was dropped after the first Test against Pakistan, resulting in his removal from the contract.

Taskin has been playing regularly since his return to the Test squad in 2021 and has only missed matches when injured.

It is likely that with both Shoriful and Taskin injured, Ebadot will get a shot in the Dhaka Test, or the team management might opt for four spinners along with just Khaled.

Since their win at Mount Maunganui, Bangladesh seemed to have a pace attack that was finally stable. But with injuries plaguing them one after another, the Tigers are once again left searching for pacers.