[Match Thread] Bangladesh v Zimbabwe : 1st Test, Sylhet

[Black Mamba]

This team can bring some success in test arena in future, the only weakness in this team is Chari & Chakabva. Moor has improved his batting, should look his keeping skills now, and there is a need of one seam bowling allrounder.

Faraz Akram, Luke Jongwe or William Mashinge could fit in that spot.

Has jongwe even been playing the last few years?

you cant really just come from nowhere and be back at full fitness. Even Kohli would take some time to tune up and get his eye in after being out of the game 2/3 years.

Faraz Akram & William Mashinge did better then Chigumbura

[Jayb]

This team can bring some success in test arena in future, the only weakness in this team is Chari & Chakabva. Moor has improved his batting, should look his keeping skills now, and there is a need of one seam bowling allrounder.

Faraz Akram, Luke Jongwe or William Mashinge could fit in that spot.

Has jongwe even been playing the last few years?

you cant really just come from nowhere and be back at full fitness. Even Kohli would take some time to tune up and get his eye in after being out of the game 2/3 years.

Faraz Akram & William Mashinge did better then Chigumbura

BM- Akram is trash, I watched some highlights of the Africa cup and he seriously sucked. He probably is better than Chigumbura but that is not saying anything at the moment. They are both so far away from international standard.

[eugene]

I hope more tests are played in Sylhet. Chittagong needs to be avoided like the plague, that pitch seems to breed scores of 500+.

[eugene]

I hope more tests are played in Sylhet. Chittagong needs to be avoided like the plague, that pitch seems to breed scores of 500+.

[Black Mamba]

Has jongwe even been playing the last few years?

you cant really just come from nowhere and be back at full fitness. Even Kohli would take some time to tune up and get his eye in after being out of the game 2/3 years.

Faraz Akram & William Mashinge did better then Chigumbura

BM- Akram is trash, I watched some highlights of the Africa cup and he seriously sucked. He probably is better than Chigumbura but that is not saying anything at the moment. They are both so far away from international standard.

Two T20's ins'nt enough to scrap him. He was great with the new bowl for Rising Stars in UK and put up descent performances with the bat in longer formats, same goes with Mashinge.

Among the remaining allrounders, Tiripano & Chibhabha are worst. Mire & Masvaure doesnt bowls enough while Nathan Waller was victim of politics, when he was at his peak.

[The Robot]

Luck for Chari, it was not a tough catch considering the fielders at point position.

[Kriterion_BD]

Well in recent times the pitches have been slow and low ( England & Aus Series ) even the Sri Lanka only had the one Test where the batsman had their way, granted most Tests are played at Mirpur which would make it seem that way.

Bangladesh have changed their way about preparing pitches since Zimbabwe last toured, they have the spinners now so they make pitches to suit, prior to Zimbabwe touring last time they prepared flat decks to favour their batsman so they could play for draws like they did against NZ in 2013

England and AUS series were square turners the kind SL and India (sometimes) make. That would be a "typical" subcontinent dustbowl. We never saw pitches like that in BD before. Before that it was dead tracks designed to earn draws. And it still took BD 13 years to start consistently drawing Tests. In fact, they never drew a home Test from 2000 to 2013.

The Islam article portrays how I think the players and media feel, they think they can win the World Cup (or do very well) so why are they bothering playing Tests against Zimbabwe of all nations? I'm sure if India were here touring they wouldn't be questioning a test series.

I realise India are a much bigger fish but as I pointed out Zimbabwe has been a good friend for a long time so I think the disrespect is unwarranted, the fans obviously don't feel the same way the test has had good crowds.

For the players I think the way they came out to bat showed they thought they could just rock up and play their strokes like they did in Chittagong, whether that's an issue that's been haunting them for the last year or so as results would suggest or whether it's the players not respecting their opponents is up for debate, either way they've had a rude shock.

BD tends to get into a funk before the world cup for some reason. 2014 it was in all formats. We lost to Afghanistan at home in an ODI (at the time Afghans were still minnows), and to Hong Kong at the WT20. This time around, our ODI form is actually good and its our Test form that has dwindled. Might be a function of World Cup induced stress. Just a theory.

As for Isam, I don't know what the point of that article was. I would imagine the players feel somewhat similarly. But not having lost to Zimbabwe at home since 2010 likely made them complacent.

[Kriterion_BD]

Now the way I see the game situation, ZIM has two distinct strategies they could employ:

1) so much time in the game, just bat without pressure

or

2) already leading by 140, you only need a few more. whatever # you feel you need...come out aggressively and get 150 in 30 overs. Doesn't matter if its 150-0 declared or 150 all out, BD will still have to chase 300

[Jemisi]

Just when I was about to say something less negative about Chari

[ZIMDOGGY]

Chari out, one of the big guns ave fallen so BD with a chance.