A tinge of green on the pitch at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. Bangladesh fielding three pacers at home. Talks of blowing the opponent away with pace.
Half a decade earlier, this would sound like a pipedream. Bangladesh had just learnt the trick of spinning tracks and winnings Tests, and shifting to a developmental approach that would see the pacers improve felt improbable.
However, things changed when Mominul Haque took over the armband of the Test side, and in 2023, the pacers turned into the protagonists for Bangladesh mercilessly thrashing their opponents.
In the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Dhaka, Bangladesh pacers took 14 wickets, the most they have taken in a single Test, crossing the 13 against New Zealand in their historic win in Mount Maunganui.
This Test saw a change in the picture as Bangladesh were very vocal from the start about their target – using pace to rock the Afghans. And that strategy worked out perfectly as the Tigers secured their biggest win by the margin of runs – 546.
Due to this change in their attitude, Bangladesh can now field a bowling attack with quality pacers and avoid events such as the 2019 Test against Afghanistan, when a spin-friendly pitch in Chattogram came back to bite the Tigers as they lost the match by 224 runs.
“We never play with three pacers in Mirpur. There was help for the pacers in the wicket and they performed their duties. I am very happy as skipper,” Bangladesh captain Liton Das said after they sealed the win.
However, with the third cycle of the World Test Championship starting, Bangladesh will look to win at home against South Africa and New Zealand, and that might see them revert to their trial with spin policy, leading to the pacers being sacrificed.
That was, indeed, the hint in Liton’s and Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe’s words ahead and during the Test.
“It (the pitch) depends on who we play against. It’s not just that we will play on pace-friendly wickets or spinning wickets. We will analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the opponents and do whatever everyone does to take home advantage,” Liton said.
“Yes, our endgame is to get results, but we wanted to understand how our skill set last five days in different conditions, challenging us to play in a certain way. When we wanted to play and get some points, and when we play the WTC, we might tactically do different things,” Hathurusinghe said ahead of this match.
Against New Zealand and South Africa at home, it might just be the pacers who will be sacrificed to facilitate three or even more spinners, while against Sri Lanka the pacers might come back at the fore again.
In a world where only results matter, Bangladesh managed to produce a process in the last few years and found success from that. And that has not just improved the bowling attack, but also the batters, as per Liton.
“Our pace unit is improving every day. Now, we struggle while batting in the nets which did not happen before. The pacers we have across formats make us (batters) face trouble in the nets. This is good for us as we face challenges ahead of the match and playing becomes easier,” he said.
However, that does not guarantee a place for the pacers as Bangladesh try to improve their WTC record in the third cycle, and the Tigers might tend towards the path India have taken following the revival of their pace attack – seam-friendly pitches against Asian teams and spinning tracks against non-Asian ones.
“When we go to New Zealand, they don’t play four spinners. We will not play there with three spinners either. Similarly, when non-Asian teams come to Asia, spinning wickets are used. When you enter the WTC, you want to take chances,” he said.
The latest Bangladesh captain, though, left a few things to the future, “Still, we would want to play on good wickets where neither pacers nor spinners will have one-sided dominance. Let’s see what happens in the future.”
Maybe, Bangladesh will not use their pace attack much at home in the next cycle to turn out results. However, there is still hope for the process that has been in place for the last two years, and maybe, the process will somehow find a way to have the say in a result-oriented world.
