Bangladesh Watch 2015-2019

[Kriterion_BD]

Our streak of 6 consecutive ODI series wins has ended. Should have won the series against England to make it 7 in a row, but in the end the better team over the 3 games won. Kudos to England who did it with basically their 2nd string side.

The ODI road gets much harder next year with series in NZ, SL, and the tougher Champions Trophy group (vs ENG, AUS, and NZ), there are also tours to AUS and SA. We will be severely tested in overseas conditions next year after 2 years of playing exclusively at home.

[Kriterion_BD]

Less than 48 hours before our return to Test match cricket! Incredibly stoked as always.

Its been almost 15 months since our last Test (at home vs South Africa). England have picked a near full strength side, with the only omission being James Anderson who is out with an injury.

We will be missing our first 3 seam bowlers as Mustafiz and Mohammad Shahid are injured, and Taskin deemed not fit enough for the 5 day game. Shafiul Islam makes a comeback and Kamrul Islam Rabbi who has been on the A team for several years is likely to get his debut.

But the biggest inclusions are Sabbir Rahman and 18 year old Mehedi Hasan. I think both are nearly certain to make the starting XI. Mehedi is a right handed version of Shakib, and I think Bangladesh may potentially be able to field 2 of the best all rounders in the modern game.

Nurul Hasan looks set to miss out, although I'd loved to have had him keep wicket with Mushfiq becoming a specialist batsman. Nurul can not only bat, but he's also arguably the best WK in the country. At 6 feet tall, he's much more natural than the 5'3" Mushfiq.

All indications are its going to be a dead flat track.

[Kriterion_BD]

Boy, what a nerve wracking finish we are in for in the Chittagong Test on day 5.

Sabbir on 59*, with just two tailenders remaining as we look to somehow score 33 more on a wicket that has turned from ball #1. Interestingly last man, Shafiul, has a test best of 53 which was scored vs England.

BD fans are daring to dream, but I don't see how we can make it. Ball is reversing, and the new ball is due in 2 overs. Interestingly in these conditions, the new ball has been useless to the quicks, and the spinners from both sides have made the new ball talk.

[Jemisi]

It is another exciting test, feeling for you Kriterion

[CrimsonAvenger]

May be this loss is a blessing in disguise. Lot of hard lessons learnt for the future. This team was totally capable of winning the test and Shakib has to take a lot of responsibility for his idiotic shot to get out in the first innings. It turned out to be a major turning point of the match when they were poised to take a healthy first innings lead and bat England out of contention. As always, BD suffering from the lack of temperament among batsmen. But there have been huge improvements in the Haturusingha era, as expected. Bangladesh should have managed match fitness of Mominul better too, given how vital he was for the tests. May be at the risk of losing the ODIs (which they lost anyway), they could have played him in them and played him into some form for the tests. Would have been a huge boost.

But I just happened to watch only this morning's session of this match. Given how BD was poised to for a potential win, lack of attendance at the stadium was shocking. BCB should have opened the gates and should have said free entry. Who knows, crowd support would have spurred Shabbir onto a quicker finish...

And what about the Dharmasena Review System?

[Kriterion_BD]

May be this loss is a blessing in disguise. Lot of hard lessons learnt for the future. This team was totally capable of winning the test and Shakib has to take a lot of responsibility for his idiotic shot to get out in the first innings. It turned out to be a major turning point of the match when they were poised to take a healthy first innings lead and bat England out of contention. As always, BD suffering from the lack of temperament among batsmen. But there have been huge improvements in the Haturusingha era, as expected. Bangladesh should have managed match fitness of Mominul better too, given how vital he was for the tests. May be at the risk of losing the ODIs (which they lost anyway), they could have played him in them and played him into some form for the tests. Would have been a huge boost.

But I just happened to watch only this morning's session of this match. Given how BD was poised to for a potential win, lack of attendance at the stadium was shocking. BCB should have opened the gates and should have said free entry. Who knows, crowd support would have spurred Shabbir onto a quicker finish...

And what about the Dharmasena Review System?

This was the most painful loss of any since I've been a BD fan - and there have been many.

Batting temperament was not an issue IMO. Only the wicket of Kayes in the 2nd innings and Shakib in the 1st were thrown away. Apart from that the other 38 wickets came off unplayable balls. It was a tough wicket to bat on, no hundreds even though there were a good number of big name batters (Cook, Root, Tamim, Mushfiq). 275 was a par first innibgs total, IMO.

We got beaten by Englands lower order.

As for Dharmasena, it was a tough wicket for umpires. The amount of turn meant that many lbws were overturnrd in the batsman's favor. I think it was a record number of reviews in this game.

Overall a lot positives for Bangladesh.

Very curious to see what kind of track we have in Dhaka.

As I predicted earlier in this thread, Bangladesh is close to winning Tests. We've proven we can upset any of the non Asian sides in our wickets.

[Kriterion_BD]

This Chittagong wicket was a big turner. Similar to the Dhaka pitch during the ZIM test in 2014 (although that wicket also had pace and bounce to assist the seamers).

Here is a clip of Mehedi Hasan Miraz's 6 fer on debut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW-DIpx-x88

[Kriterion_BD]

Well Bangladesh have their very own "Muzarabani".

We cannnot figure out why Shuvagata Hom keeps getting selected...and he is in for the 2nd Test vs England.

Test batting average of 21 and bowling average 59. Fucking ruins this game before the first ball is even bowled!

[CrimsonAvenger]

England deserves to lose this test for thinking of using this series as preparation for India series and taking BD lightly even after what happened in the first test. Eng spinners nowhere near BD spinners quality, Shuvagata Hom's selection notwithstanding.

[Kriterion_BD]

Well it is a long 5 Test series with no rest time (England won't play any warmups and go straight into the Tests).

I wish Broad and Anderson had been fit for the entire series, although neither would have gotten much from the conditions. We see Stokes with his reverse swing has been the pick of the bowlers taking 6 for just 46 on Chittagong's rank turner.