Is there a solution at number three?

Bangladesh's last Test in Sri Lanka was a historic one as the Tigers celebrated their 100th Test match with a victory.  The Bangladesh think-tank therefore has a winning combination in mind as they chalk out a strategy regarding team combination for the first Test against Australia starting from August 27 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

If that is the policy followed, left-hander Mominul Haque has little chance of making a comeback to the number three position. The axe had fallen on the diminutive left-hander for the historic Test following his poor dismissal in both innings in the first Test at Galle. It may be better to keep him out of the team if he is not part of the final planning. The question however remains about the management's plans for the crucial number three position, namely whether they will prefer a makeshift option by bringing in specialist opener Imrul Kayes.

It seems that we are making a fuss of the healthy competition for the opening spot between Imrul and Soumya Sarker, trying the former on and off at the number three position. It would be unfortunate and will hinder long-term progress in Test cricket if a shoddy experiment is made of a crucial position to establish someone in the opening slot.

Mominul went through bad times in his last two matches -- against India and Sri Lanka, but this team management has provided ample evidence of their considerable patience for a player to return to form in the way they kept faith in Soumya.  If they have enough reasons and explanations to keep Mominul out of contention, they must think about a genuine (and of course better than Mominul) number three batsman. So it would be interesting to see how the team management solve the number three conundrum when they announce the team for the Test series against Australia.

Many have also been speculating that all-rounder Nasir Hossain may return to the Test squad for the two-Test series and if that proves to be true we want to believe that he will replace another spinning all-rounder, otherwise it would not go with the notion that we want to make a genuine Test team.