The Reverse Sweep

How competitive are Bangladesh?

A while back, I wrote a post refuting the general view that Bangladesh are getting better. On the evidence of the test series with England, I was wrong. They are getting better but how competitive are they? And how close are they to actually winning a test match against anyone other than Zimbabwe or a West Indies third XI?

First the positives. Whatever the outcome of the 2nd Test, Bangladesh have done reasonably well in this series. They have taken both games to five days and certainly in this test they have at times been on top -like on the first morning when Tamim Iqbal's blitzkreig batting had England in temporary disarray. They've also had the worse of the umpiring decisions in this match with Tony Hill in particular making a number of howlers in England's 1st innings.

Bangladesh have also finally produced some decent players. Tamim Iqbal looks a special batsman and at 21 can only get better, especially if he quells the recklessnessthat saw him lose his wicket in the 2nd innings yesterday at such a crucial time. Shakib seems to be growing into his captaincy role and is a genuinely good all-rounder. Mahmudullah is a classy batsman and he was Bangladesh's most dangerous bowler in the 1st test. And Mushfiqur Rahim also looks good with the bat even if his wicketkeeping leaves a lot to be desired. Junaid Siddique has also done well and could have a future as Tamim's opening partner.

So things seem to be improving and doubtless, on their own pitches, Bangladesh could give New Zealand, West Indies and even Pakistan a run for their money. But there are some fundamental problems too. With Mortaza injured and unlikely to play test cricket again, the seam attack is extremely weak, which doesn't bode well for the early summer tests in England. They also lack strength in the batting department and seem to rely on the same players each time. What price would Jamie Siddons pay for Mohammad Ashraful to finally realise his undoubted promise?

They have alsodeveloped an unerring ability to lose the initiative in matches just when it looks like they are getting on top. Yesterday, they knocked off the 1st innings deficit for the loss of only one wicket before imploding on a docile pitch. Similarly, Bangladesh failed to step up to the plate at crucial moments against India and New Zealand in recent test matches. At the moment they are a team that can have a good session or even a good day, but over five days they lack consistency and concentration.

Bangladesh's record since playing their 1st test in 2000 is atrocious with only three wins and six draws in their 65 tests before the current match in Dhaka. That record will undoubtedly improve as the team is young, but there is a long, long way still to go for Bangladeshi cricket.   

Bangladesh's strange batting strategy

It was good to see Bangladesh make a bit of a fight of it against the Kiwis moving from 80 odd for 5 overnight to an eventual 282 to 'only' lose by 121 runs.

Yet again the lower order helped the Tigers retain some credibility with Shakib's maiden test ton sounding like it was a great knock. He even took the fight to Vettori and scored 40 odd runs off only 13 deliveries.

Following on from Mahmudullah's recent contributions, which culminated with a ton in the first innings and a 40 today, and consistent runs from Mushfiqur Rahim, it seems Bangladesh have adopted a strange batting strategy.

Put the best batsmen at six, seven and eight (where Mahmudullah averages nearly 50 albeit from only 5 tests), throw caution to the wind at the top and then recover after the inevitable batting collapse.

Only once in their last few tests has a top order batsman made a significant contribution - Tamim Iqbal's wonderful century against India. Other than that it has been left up to Shakib, Rahim and Mahmudullah to continually pick up the pieces.

No wonder Bangladesh always lose. Their supposed best batsman Mohammad Ashraful averages a paltry 22.78 in over 50 tests. That is lower than Nathan Hauritz. Case closed.

Time to change the strategy guys.

Bangladesh are getting better (repeat 1,000 times)

There seems to have been about a million articles recently claiming that the Bangladesh team are getting better with the common inference being that they will be able to compete with the other test playing sides in the next year or so.

As Boris Johnson would (probably) say this is absolute piffle.

True they did manage to beat the West Indian under 12 side in the test and ODI series in the Caribbean last year.

It's also true that they have finally produced a genuinely good player in Shakib Al Hasan. And in the recent series with India certain individuals stepped up to the plate at certain times. Mushfiqur Rahim looks like a promising wicketkeeper/batsman, the wonderfully named Mahmudullah is too low in the batting order and best of all Tamim Iqbal's century in the 2nd Test was a genuinely great innings.

But they still lost the series easily 2-0 having previously lost every match in the ODI tri-series prior to the tests. Even Zimbabwe used to be more difficult to beat at home.

And then today New Zealand bowled out Bangladesh for 78 and knocked off the runs in less than nine overs with no wickets down. Now the Kiwis are admittedly better than the sum of their parts but only the West Indies and Pakistan are arguably between them and Bangladesh in the rankings.

We'll have to see how Bangladesh fare on the rest of their tour to the land of the long white cloud, but even an England team captained by Alastair Cook (who was certainly Captain Clueless in the T20I he captained in SA) should win both tests and all the ODIs.

Perhaps the biggest proof of Bangladesh's continuing ineptitude is the fact that Mohammad Ashraful is continually referred to as their best batsman. This is the same Mohammad Ashraful who averages 23 in both tests and ODIs. That is lower than both Stuart Broad and Nathan Hauritz.

I'd quite like to see Bangladesh improve but I can't see it happening to the level it needs to for them to compete with the other test playing sides. I fear they will be the whipping boys of international cricket for the foreseeable future.

Over to you Captain Cook.

Mahmudallah and Rahim at feeding time

Whilst working at home this morning, I had to give my 14 month old son his breakfast. Faced with a choice of 'Walter and Dude' on Baby TV or the Bangladesh-India test, I opted for the latter.

My son was so hungry, he wouldn't have cared if I had opted for 'Vampire Killers From Hell' or other such nonsense.

Anyway when we tuned into the action from Chittagong all seemed predictable.

Despite bowling India out for 243, Bangladesh were struggling at 120/6 with all thier big guns gone - even if their big guns are actually rather small pistols.

The wonderfully named Mahmudallah and wicket keeper Mushfiqur Rahim were batting. And Sreesanth and Amit Mishra were bowling a lot of no balls and some rubbish.

The two Bangladeshi lads eagerly tucked in and also accumulated steadily against the brilliant Zaheer and the erratic Ishant, and helped their side to close in on the Indian 1st innings score.

Although the partnership of 108 was ended when Rahim went for a careless slog off Mishra it did help Bangladesh to a total of 242 and put their side very much in the ball game with two days to play.

No doubt the powerful Indian batting line-up will pull away but along with the excellent Shakib, it would appear that Bangladesh are at last becoming more competitive.

Kind of makes you ask why England have decided it is a good idea to rest their skipper and appoint Captain Cook for their tour of Bangladesh in February and March.

We all know what fate befell the last Captain Cook.

Speaking of eating, Alexander (my son) scoffed all of his porridge up staring avidly at the cricket, which is doubly good!