Tigers take stock before Chittagong
It was the morning after Bangladesh cricketers had entered a new era by registering their maiden Test win over Australia and taking a 1-0 lead in their two-match Test series. Most of the cricketers had gone home to spend time with their families ahead of their flight to Chittagong today for the second Test starting from September 4 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
The man of the moment Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and skipper Mushfiqur Rahim opted to stay with their families while juniors such as Mustafizur Rahman, Mehedi Hasan and Taijul Islam had an outing at the National Academy in Mirpur yesterday.
Left-arm seamer Mustafizur, who bowled just nine overs and remained wicket-less in the first Test, had a massage at the National Academy complex and he will be looking to regain his rhythm before the second Test.
Left-arm spinner Taijul has been the unsung hero behind quite a few Bangladesh successes in the recent past, including the Tigers' historic 20-run win over the Aussies in the first Test where he managed to bowl in the right areas and give the Australians a tough time.
He bowled just eight overs in the first innings -- trapping Peter Handscomb leg-before to capture his 50th Test wicket -- but he did superbly in the second innings where he consistently hit the proper length and ended up picking three for 30 from 19.5 overs.
According to Taijul, he is looking to bowl more balls in the right areas and informed that the Tigers were expecting to get a similar sort of pitch in Chittagong.
"Most of the time I am able to get wickets but at the same time I am not able to bowl in good areas consistently. I will try to rectify that mistake and look to bowl more good balls in Chittagong. If I am able to bowl more good balls consistently it will help my career and also benefit the team," Taijul said while speaking to reporters at the National Academy yesterday.
The 25-year-old also informed that ace all-rounder Shakib had helped him by providing inputs throughout the game and added that the Tigers had the ability to clinch the series 2-0.
On the other hand, young off-spinner Mehedi, who was also superb with his tight line and length and had a talk with Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon after the first Test, informed that Shakib inspired the team during the drinks break on the fourth day which helped the team immensely.
"Shakib bhai inspired me a lot during the drinks break by saying that if the supporters in the gallery had the belief that Bangladesh could win the game then why can't we think like that. After that everyone gave their all in the field and their wickets started to fall as Shakib bhai gave us important breakthroughs," Mehedi told reporters.