Fielding lapses cost Tigers
When Taskin Ahmed appeared at the press briefing yesterday he said he was not too bothered with the dropped catches off his bowling.
“Some went through the slips and gully, but it wasn't my day. I might end up with 7-8 wickets when it is my day,” the soft-spoken pace bowler said with an innocent smile on his face.
He might not be too concerned, but with as many as four catches dropped on the second day, sloppy fielding is increasingly becoming a luxury that Bangladesh can ill afford.
Dropped catches and very ordinary fielding are things that have troubled Bangladesh throughout most of the series. The butterfingered Tigers dropped four catches in the first Test in Wellington. Not only that, they also dropped some crucial catches in the preceding limited-overs series.
They do not have a good slip fielder and are lacking a sharp catcher in the silly mid-off or short square leg in the absence of Mominul Haque. They do not have many safe pairs of hands when it comes to taking catches in the deep. They have got more lethargic legs than nimble ones and only a few strong arms capable of throwing right into the stumps. A few of them are even reluctant to dive on such a beautiful ground as evidenced on the second day.
Bangladesh's pace bowlers have historically never been good fielders and Taskin, Rubel Hossain and Kamrul Islam are no exceptions.
Bangladesh have been trying to find a safe pair of hands in the slip cordon, but so far nobody, not even Soumya Sarker or Sabbir Rahman -- the two better fielders in the team -- could prove their worth in that sensitive position. But slip fielders are very important, especially in a Test match where you are not going to get a lot of chances.
Mahmudullah Riyad has been a total disappointment in the series so far. He failed with the bat and dropped many catches either fielding in the deep or in the slip. He is one of those fielders who can leak runs, turning a single into two.
In the present lot, Bangladesh have got four fielders who can match the high standards set by other teams. They are Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya, Sabbir and Mehedi Hasan Miraz. The rest are a captain's nightmare. And it's not the sign of a good team.
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