Dressing room captaincy?
During the tour of Sri Lanka in March this year, the Bangladesh cricket team staged a memorable turnaround from a 259-run defeat in the first Test in Galle to win the second and square the series. After Galle, the players did some soul searching and fixed upon a tradition of holding a players-only meeting before each match, during which they would come up with their own ideas to solve problems they had faced on the field and this self-sufficient method bore fruit. It is not known if that approach has since been abandoned, but there was scant evidence of it having survived till their current tour of South Africa.
One might say that the decision to field first yet again was a surprise, but it really was not if one takes the state of mind of the team into account in light of the 333-run defeat in the first Test and Tamim Iqbal's absence. What followed was a show of confusion that seemed to infect all players on the field with the exception of Mustafizur Rahman. Subhasish Roy, Rubel Hossain and Taijul Islam – all part of the four changes brought to the team for the second Test – served up a buffet of half volleys, wayward lines and full tosses for Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram to feast upon. As in the first Test, Mustafizur seemed the only one who had a clue about the values of sticking to a certain line and length to frustrate the batsmen.
Presumably Rubel and Subhasish were searching for swing when they pitched the ball up, but even after numerous driven boundaries they, along with skipper Mushfiqur Rahim, failed to realise that it was not working. Unlike the team in Sri Lanka, this one had to go to the lunch break and, one assumes, be taught new tactics by the coaching staff. The new mode of attack was evidently a bouncer barrage, and that worked better than what they tried before lunch. It was again Mustafizur who showed the way. After Elgar reached an uncharacteristically quick hundred that said more about Bangladesh's bowling than any adventurism on the left-hander's part, he was bothered by Mustafizur's around-the-wicket bouncers, but Liton Das dropped a gloved pull behind the stumps.
Subhasish benefited from Mustafizur's persistence when a bouncer forced another false shot from Elgar and Mustafizur himself completed a fine, diving catch at fine leg. A few overs later, a barrage of bouncers from Rubel Hossain, followed by a fast, swinging yorker bowled Markram, who was pinned back by the series of short deliveries earlier that over. He had tried yorkers in the first session too, but they were often preceded by half volleys.
After tea, the bouncer efforts were redoubled, maybe upon further cajoling in the dressing room, and it almost produced another wicket. After a good delivery from Subhasish accounted for Temba Bavuma, a Mustafizur bouncer was uncomfortably hooked by Faf du Plessis in the air to fine leg, where a sprinting and diving Subhasish failed to get to the ball in time.
In the first two sessions, Mushfiqur seemed to have given up as he was seen for long spells positioned at the boundary and not marshalling the troops he had ordered into battle in the morning. Maybe he knew that the game for those sessions was up and was waiting for the interval for further instructions.
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