Irrespective of what happened in the earlier year Test series in West Indies, the ensuing two Test-match series in Bangladesh between two ICC bottom tier test teams will witness mouth watering contest.
Bangladeshi batsmen, despite of absence TamimIqbal, are expected much better on low slow Bangladesh wicket. West Indies pacers are not going to get much assistance. Young West Indian batsmen will have testing time against high-quality Bangladeshi spinners on turning wickets.
Hopefully the wonderful turning around of Bangladesh at Dhaka after shocking batting collapse in both innings at Sylhet must have brought back the momentum. Return of ace all rounder at Captain Shakib Al Hasan would add fillip. It is to be seen whether Soumya can play to his potential opening with indifferent form Imrul Kayes can work well in getting over terrible situation of top order. It will be huge Test of young West Indian batsmen also. Off course they have acquired useful experience of climate and condition of the subcontinent from a series in India.
Bangladesh has announced Test squad of 13 players. Two players would be added after the ongoing 2 days of warm-up match at Chittagong is over.
Bangladesh Squad: Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar , Mominul Haque , Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan , Mahmudullah Riad , Mohammad Mithun, ArifulHaq , Mehedi Miraj, Taijul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Khaled Ahmed and NaeemHasan
Four players have been changed from the team that played in the last series .Liton K Das, Nazmul Hossain, Shanto, Nazmul Hasan Opu and Abu Jayed Rahi lost their place. Soumay Sarkar and Shakib Al Hasan have returned and teenage off spinner Naeem Hasan has been added to the squad.
There is no doubt that return of top all rounder Shakib would give better balance adding his world class bowling and batting. His combination with Taijul and Miraj makes Bangladesh spin attack one of the best in tests. If the wicket takes turn, it will tease and torment West Indian batting. But we are not sure out of form Kayes and Soumya suffering from continuous chopping and changing can change the quality of opening partnership against very potent West Indies pace attack.
Kayes looked pretty ordinary in test against Jarvis, Chattara and Tirpano. West Indies pacers bowl must faster and are more penetrative. Hopefully prolific Mominul can repeat his heroics of the first of Dhaka Test. He is still coming to terms as seen in the remaining three innings of the two Tests. Team think tank has not used this quality resource too well chopping and changing him off and on in other formats .Musfique looked prolific in his marathon innings of 221 not out at Dhaka . He too looked rusty in other three innings. So was Mahmudullah apart from his 101* match winning second innings performance in Dhaka. Off course return of Shakib would strengthen the middle order .Mithun looked well on his debut in the second innings after a dreadful duck in the first. One of gains of the last test series is confident batting of Mehedy Miraj at late middle order.
I m not sure whether Bangladesh would appear with one pacer and three spinners . With Ariful and Soumya available Bangladesh may appear with Mustafizonly . But he is also recovering from injury and may long be able to bowl longer spells on unresponsive wicket. I find no point of adding NaeemHasan in the team. With three front line quality spinners NaeemHasan can only get used to dressing room climate. Another quality middle order batsman could be useful.
Anyway in any game no one thinks of taking revenge. But the way Bangladesh was bruised, battered and avalanched in the test series in West Indies it would great if Bangladesh can return the compliment white washing West Indies. It is not outside Bangladesh capability. But it won’t be easy. Bangladesh fielded very poorly in two tests against Zimbabwe. Fielding has too improved a lot. Bangladesh has to play out of their skin.
While the nation is in the grip of election fever wins in test matches will add additional flavor in the feast.
BDST: 1610 HRS, NOV 18, 2018
AH
