Comprehensive test series whitewash by South Africa, extremely poor performance in all departments of the game may have brought the morale of team tigers at all-time low.

Now Charismatic Mashrafe, Super Shakib and Terrific Tamim rearing to go against South Africa in favorite formats of team tiger’s admirers can realistically expect them turning around. But before that there must be soul searching what went very wrong in the test series.

Knowledgeable cricket admirers can ask was team tigers at all prepared for the test series? Did they have any homework about South African wickets and condition? Did the highly paid coaching stuff prepare them well for the series? 

Head Coach Hathurusingha is the person in charge to set strategy, mentor each individual player, fine tune them for upcoming challenges? Did he do that? Did legendary Courtney Walsh fine tune the pacers to adjust to changed South African wickets? What was the role of chief Selector cum Manager Minhajul Abedin Nannu in the test series? Who plotted the ridiculous decision of letting Strong South Africa bat on not too difficult to bat wickets on day one in two tests? Why Bangladesh appeared with four less experienced front line bowlers in the first test?

Mushfiq squad was asked to climb the Mount Everest riding on wheel chair in ridiculous manner. Without proper preparation team used to playing on slow low turning tracks was to play on fast bouncy wickets in completely different conditions. On top of all captain Mushfiq was not given any liberty to make his own plan and strategy. Top ranked all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was given permission to sit out of the test series, experienced in form Tamim missed the second test through injury. 

Bangladesh picked a team most of whom do not even appear in the longer version format in domestic cricket. The outcome was not unexpected. Bangladeshi batsmen are not used to playing against sharp rising short deliveries of fast bowlers aiming at rib cages. Three innings diabolic batting performances led to embarrassing losses. If we sum up it was misfiring team strategy orchestrated by team management.

The sooner team tigers forget the horror memory of the test series the better. A little ray of hope was seen in the practice match played yesterday. Shakib and Sabbir played two characteristic innings. Soumya the blue-eyed boy of Hathurusingha was given opportunity again and failed as usual. Mushfiq, Kayes and Mahmudullah took start but could not kick on. 

Team missed the opportunity of trying Mominul. Hopefully fit again Tamim would boost the batting. Bowling however remains a big worry. Hopefully Mashrafe and bowling coach Walsh would short out soon. Hope Bangladesh would turn around. A series win would create opportunity for Bangladesh to climb to 6th position above Pakistan in ODI ranking.

But bottom line of all would be letting captain Mashrafe lead his team freely and to his judgment without remote control from FAILED TEAM MANAGEMENT. Nowhere in the world cricket any coaching stuff enjoys unlimited authority in team management and operation. 

Mr Hathurusingha is also not a highly rated cricket coach. Many players in team tigers are far better cricketers to be dictated like what he is doing. He must own the responsibility of the diabolic performance in test series.

BDST: 0916 HRS, OCT 13, 2017
SI