A chance for Bangladesh to gain ground
CORRECTION: Due to the International Cricket Council's rankings not having been updated to include Bangladesh's 1-1 draw against Zimbabwe, the original assertion in this article (made with the help of the ICC's ranking predictor) that Bangladesh will go above West Indies in ranking points if they win the series 1-0 was an erroneous one. Whatever the outcome of the series, Bangladesh will remain ninth and West Indies seventh. A 2-0 win for Bangladesh will show both teams on 72 ranking points but Bangladesh will still be fractionally behind on 71.96 points while West Indies will have 72.44. We regret the error and have corrected it in the body of the article.
Revenge is a word rarely spoken aloud by sportsmen, but it will be hard to argue that it will not be at least in the back of the Bangladesh cricketers' minds when they take on West Indies in the first Test at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Thursday.
In July, the Tigers went to the West Indies and, to put it mildly, had their clocks cleaned in the two-Test series by the hosts. The shellacking started with Bangladesh being shot out for their lowest score of 43 in the first Test in Antigua and the trend of batting failures continued in the second Test in Jamaica.
Test skipper Shakib Al Hasan, set to return to the side after missing out on the preceding home series against Zimbabwe due to a finger injury, did not speak of vengeance and focused instead on how close the teams are in the ICC Test team rankings, which he thought added importance to the two-Test series.
"We are very close in the rankings table -- eight and nine -- so I think this series is very important and I have the belief that we can do well," Shakib said in the pre-match press conference at the venue on Wednesday.
Bangladesh are in ninth position in the Test rankings and West Indies eighth and regardless of what happens over the next two Tests the standings will remain as they are. However, if Shakib's hope of matching West Indies' 2-0 result is fulfilled, both teams will be shown to be on 72 ranking points, with Bangladesh fractionally behind on 71.96 ranking points to West Indies' 72.44. It stands as a golden opportunity to recover some ground after losing six ranking points with their drawn series against lowest-ranked Zimbabwe.
In a sign that a bit of hurt was lingering under the surface for the abject showing in the Caribbean, Shakib said that the hosts will be looking to match the result that West Indies achieved in July -- a 2-0 sweep of the Test series. "Since our ranking positions are close to each other and as they did well at home, we will also have a target to do as well here," Shakib said.
There is enough reason, apart from the hammering they suffered in the last series, for Bangladesh to have an extra spring in their stride against the West Indies.
In their climb up the ladder of international cricket, and particularly in ODIs where they are ranked seventh, Bangladesh have done well against the likes of Sri Lanka and West Indies -- two teams who have been struggling to recapture their past levels of performances. It was against West Indies -- albeit a West Indies weakened substantially by a contracts dispute -- that Bangladesh won their first away Tests when they swept the two-match series in the Caribbeans in 2009. Another significant step up for Bangladesh came in late 2012, when Bangladesh won a five-match home ODI series against the then reigning World Twenty20 champions in 2012. So it is not unreasonable to imagine that being outclassed by West Indies, even if away from home, was a result that they would like to correct in order to more truly reflect the respective strengths of the sides.
The 2009 series, incidentally, was Shakib's first as a captain after he took over from Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who was injured early in the first Test. The July 2018 series was also his first in his second innings as captain and this one will be his first after returning from injury.
"I am hopeful, personally, and I think the whole team believes that it is possible to do well against them, that we should do well and we have the belief to do well."
Of course, it will not be a straightforward task for a side that had to settle for a drawn home series against Zimbabwe.
"It will be a bit more challenging. We didn't do well in the first Test against Zimbabwe [in Sylhet, which the hosts lost by 151 runs]. I am 100 per cent sure that it will be a lot more challenging against the West Indies, be it in bowling, batting or in the mental department. But I also think that we are used to taking up such challenges."
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