A question of practice
Bangladesh's fans, let alone the players, must be sick of the feeling of deja vu when the fifth day of a Test comes along. Yesterday after resuming on 67 without loss, Bangladesh folded for 197 in chase of 457 or a more realistic 98 overs to bat out on the fifth day on an unusually benign Galle International Cricket Stadium wicket.
This season, starting from Wellington, through Christchurch and Hyderabad and now Galle, batting collapses when draws were imminently possible has left them defeated and looking like newcomers to Test cricket ahead of their 100th Test on March 15. When mistakes are repeated this often, what does it say about the processes that get the players out onto the field of play to compete on a level with their opponents?
Even more troubling for Bangladesh is that the deja vu is not limited to the results, but extends to the dismissals, of which there were five in the first hour. Soumya Sarkar may as well have gotten out to the first ball -- his sweep that looped over short leg was as irresponsible as his first-innings pull shot to the first ball of pace he had faced that day -- but his dismissal next ball, bowled by a slow-medium, part-time off-spinner brings to mind his deficiencies against movement of any kind. Mominul Haque got out in exactly the same fashion as he did in the first innings, playing back to an off-spinner pitching the ball up. Mahmudullah Riyad, it now appears, has trouble getting in line to the spinners as well as pacers. Liton Das again played an airy shot when more circumspection was required.
"I hope that we can become mentally stronger and more disciplined in practice," said a glum Mushfiqur after the match. "By discipline what I mean is when we do [our] nets [sessions] according to match situations, to become more disciplined as a team."
Tamim in the first innings did not know where the ball was and made a run for it, but he said later that he had nicked the ball which, having nestled in the keeper's gloves, enabled the run-out. Shakib chased a ball down the leg side off Lakshan Sandakan and was caught behind. Yesterday, Mushfiqur did the same against the same bowler.
"I still believe Shakib's dismissal in the first innings was unlucky," said Mushfiqur. "And my dismissal today too... I saw that there was no leg slip, no short fine leg, so if I don't try to play that ball and score runs, which ball will I score runs off?"
By the time Mushfiqur played that shot, it may already have been too late. But it is a little puzzling when the team's best and most responsible batsman and one who played an innings of high Test pedigree in the first innings asks that question which betrays an ODI mindset, something that Mushfiqur clearly does not suffer from but may be present elsewhere in the team.
One is left to wonder whether leaving deliveries down the leg side when that mode of dismissal has been a recurring one is a match situation to work on or adapt to over the course of five days. Another match situation to work on in the nets would probably be batting long enough to save a Test. With the average dismissal yesterday taking 18.5 minutes, it doesn't seem like that has been on the agenda.
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