Tireless Taijul shines

The 12th man in cricket simply means a player who can just field, neither bat nor bowl. Taijul Islam wears the number 12 on his back.

His off-field persona, somehow, makes that shirt number make sense. A nonchalant person, keeping it simple – work hard tirelessly, and deliver.

On Tuesday, he did. Taijul picked up his 11th five-wicket haul in Tests, the second-highest among Bangladesh bowlers.

However, what makes Taijul as good as he is, is his tirelessness with the ball. He can bowl, and bowl, and then bowl some more. In his last 10 innings, Taijul has bowled over 25 overs seven times, and 23.4 over once.

On the first day of the one-off Test against Ireland, he bowled 28 out of 77.2 overs Ireland batted, easily the most among the Tigers’ bowlers.

The wicket at Mirpur did not serve up with its usual characteristic – turn from the very start. Rather, there was grass and some help early on for the seamers.

Taijul, though, made it work. With his discipline, control, and neatness. First, Andrew Balbirnie tried to sweep him and was trapped LBW. Peter Moor tried to lob him over mid-off and was caught.

Curtis Campher then could not read an arm ball from the left-arm spinner, and neither could Mark Adair. In between, Lorcan Tucker was deceived with his pace variation, and thanks to some great glovework from Liton Das, Taijul sent him packing.

“Of course, the pace variation was important. Because there was not much turn on offer, and there was even bounce. So, I had to use that pace variation according to where the batter is comfortable and where not,” Bangladesh’s second-highest wicket-taker in Tests explained.

While he has 11 fifers in the format, this is only his second in the first innings of a Test match at home and his first at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

“This is definitely something to feel good about – getting five wickets in the first innings. The way the wicket is, it is very difficult to get five wickets. So, feels good,” he said.

The left-arm spinner jokingly said that when he got five, he was thinking about another – the last wicket of the Ireland innings. However, that went to Mehidy Hasan Miraz.

“After getting five wickets, what I thought was that if I got another, I would have six,” Taijul, with a smile, said.