Of a backfiring short-term fix
When it comes to approaching Test cricket, which revolves around endurance and longevity of ideas, Bangladesh cricket often adopts short-term fixes.
Case in point, after the rain-hit second Test between Bangladesh and New Zealand in Mirpur reached its conclusion after 178.1 overs, stand-in skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto had said that the wicket was what they had asked for.
A four-wicket loss, however, suggested that the Tigers fell into the trap they had set the visitors up for at their favourite hunting ground.
Shanto also mentioned that at home, such wickets will be prepared again and Bangladesh needed to be better prepared to take advantage.
It turns out that the wicket at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium for the Mirpur Test was adjudged "unsatisfactory" by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday.
The Mirpur pitch was consequently handed one demerit point after match referee David Boon said in his report that the wicket was "under-prepared" with inconsistent bounce and balls bursting from the surface.
Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, a cricket analyst and mentor of many national team stalwarts, has also served as a curator and he was asked to comment on whether batters can be prepared for such wickets.
"First of all, the ICC does not allow such wickets. The skipper must know where the limit is if they want to play on such wickets," Fahim said about the wicket.
Fahim said that such clipped grass, mentioned in the match referee's report, only acted as a means to "camouflage whatever the surface actually was".
Teams such as England and Australia have lost Tests here on turning tracks, but Fahim believes that the gap between Bangladesh and teams outside of the subcontinent are decreasing in terms of how they fare on such wickets.
"There was a time when we would play average on such wickets but the away side would play poorly. This time they had world-class spinners and went against us toe to toe. Those who are mentally strong, experienced are ones that can do something on this wicket as a batter. New Zealand are mentally much stronger than us and have a better chance to win on such surfaces," he opined.
Bangladesh batters tried to show resilience but no batter from either side could find results as well as Glenn Phillips, who dispatched deliveries in his range clinically during an aggressive knock.
"When Phillips cleared the boundary ropes, it was difficult for the spinners to attack him. When the ball is within a batter's reach, it's difficult to defend since you need to react faster. But you also need the capacity for hitting, and Phillips had that," he said.
More acutely, Fahim believes that short-term gain was prioritized by the thinktank, spearheaded by coach Chandika Hathurusingha.
"Maybe winning the second Test would have allowed the captain to say that the team won on his captaincy debut. The coach should be asked about it too, since I feel it's his idea too [to prepare such a wicket]. Maybe it was done to bring immediate results right now, but without necessary forethought for what this kind of wicket will bring in the future.
"It shows that current leadership doesn't have ideas like Eddie Barlow or Gordon Greenidge, who not only thought about the present but also kept Bangladesh's future in mind," Fahim further said.
Batters can hardly say that they gained any confidence from batting in Mirpur. It is trivial given how the ODI World Cup went where bowlers from all countries were put under the cosh and batters made the difference with their shot-playing ability.
"If we play on such surfaces [in future], we will be knowingly losing the game since opponents are coming better prepared for such tracks as time progresses," Fahim concluded.