In the last decade, the Tigers were involved in some of Test
cricket’s most nail-biting encounters with the big boys of world cricket.
Pakistan were given a run for their money at Multan in 2003, Australia were
given a scare at Fatullah in 2006 and at Chittagong in 2008, Daniel Vettori's
New Zealand were in the mud. But, in all those nerve-wracking contests, the Tigers tasted a bitter experience which
dented their self-confidence big time.
Doubts regarding Bangladesh’s mental
strength
They
failed to bounce back and essay the same sort of fight in the following Test
matches.
Bangladesh
experienced another heartbreak at Chittagong in 2016. It was the first Test of
the two-match Test series between England and Bangladesh, and from the word go,
the home team had the visitors in a stranglehold. The Test match went down to
the wire like Multan and Fatullah, but at the end of the day, there was no
change to the script – the Tigers were left stunned and heartbroken. The story
of heartaches revisited and, it seemed, it would affect the morale of the team
badly.
Thankfully,
Chandika Hathurusingha is the coach of the team and he is one of those
characters who studies the game very well and is well aware of how to handle
his boys when such defeats pose a threat to the self-belief of the team.
Chandika is like a father to his boys and never lets negative thoughts enter
into their hearts. He sings positive songs and boosts the morale of his boys
and prepares them for the next challenge.
The
Tigers moved on and organized themselves for the next Test at Mirpur.
There
were doubts that Bangladesh might not recover from the trauma at Chittagong and
thus, they might fail to maintain their vim and dish out below-par performances
in the second Test.
There
were obvious signs of mediocrity at Mirpur – a terrible collapse in the first
innings where nine wickets fell for just 49 runs, Chris Woakes and Adil
Rashid’s stubborn resistance for the ninth wicket aided by some ordinary
captaincy from Mushfiq, Mahmudullah’s madness at the fag end of day 2 and
Mushfiq’s lack of bite in captaincy yet again when England were going all guns
blazing in the fourth innings – hinted of another cliff-hanger, but a frustrating
defeat for Bangladesh.
The
complexion of the game changed after Tea on day 3. Mushfiq decided to attack
and engaged his go-to-man in this series, Mehedi Hasan Miraz. Normally, Mushfiq
is known to go on the backfoot when the opposition batsmen fetch runs fluently,
but it was a different Mushfiq after Tea who wanted to break the partnership
and fetch more wickets to put England under pressure.
Miraz
struck gold with his first ball. All of a sudden, Bangladesh rediscovered their
killer instinct.
There
is a school of thought that during the break, Chandika expressed his anger
towards the captain and other members of the team. He was annoyed with the
lackluster attitude of the Tigers on the field and implored his men to show
more character. Perhaps it worked as a tonic for Mushfiq and others.
Neither
did Bangladesh lose their self-belief nor did they snatch another defeat from
the jaws of victory. Instead, they bounced back from the terrible experience of
Chittagong to outclass one of the top teams in Test cricket, England.
The
ghost of Chittagong didn’t haunt the Tigers but instead they buried it in style
at Mirpur.
This victory means a lot for Bangladesh
cricket. For more than a decade, the Test status of Bangladesh has always been
questioned. Pathetic performances with astonishing regularity only earned shame
and the light at the end of the tunnel was hardly visible. Test victories came
only against Zimbabwe and a second-string West Indies team, while against the
big boys, Bangladesh were a disgrace.
Finally,
Bangladesh have broken the hoodoo . Like the limited-overs team, the Test team
of Bangladesh have exhibited the intent and hunger to win matches.
The
Bangladesh Test team is not without flaws and this victory must not hide those.
Still, there are areas, for example - shot selection, improving the batting
technique against reverse swing, exhibiting composure during the critical
passage of play, organizing the bowling attack with more emphasis on pace
bowlers and a bit more dynamism in captaincy when the opposition is taking the
upper hand - where Bangladesh need to
improve a lot.
With
Chandika around, it should not take long before Bangladesh find themselves
mixing it with the big boys.
Note:
This article has been published at Sportskeeda on 31/10/2016 Bangladesh have buried the ghost of Chittagong in style
Thank
You
Faisal
Caesar
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