Could change in seniors’ batting approach influence Test culture?
Bangladesh's lack of Test culture has created a buzz in the media recently. Head coach Russell Domingo has spoken numerous times about creating such a culture since taking the reins, but the issue keeps coming to the fore, especially after disastrous losses.
However, looking at the team's two senior batters in Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan during the West Indies Tests, the question remains whether such batting approaches can influence the desired changes.
Test culture was brought up again after a 10-wicket defeat to the West Indies in the second Test, with skipper Shakib Al Hasan fielding questions on the topic afterwards. Shakib pointed to a lack of interest in Tests in the country, although he conceded that may be due to a lack of good performances in the format.
"I think you can't fault the players totally for it (being less interested in Tests) because our system is like that. Do you see that 25,000 or 30,000 fans watch a Test from the ground? In England, that happens every match. There was no Test culture in our country before and it's not there today either," Shakib said.
Shakib opined that culture was inter-linked with overall performances in Tests and thus the two must improve together.
Shakib hit 51 in the first innings of the Antigua Test but his approach made some sense with batters providing no resistance from the other side. In the second innings, he and Nurul Hasan Sohan put up the only century stand in that Test during a seventh-wicket stand.
Both batters looked good as they played against the older ball, but Shakib threw away his wicket with a rash shot off Kemar Roach just after the new ball arrived. The aerial shot, trying to go over cover, ruined his good work.
Head coach Domingo said that Shakib needed to find balance between attack and defence. However, Shakib later said that he had found success a certain way and would not change his approach.
In the second innings of second Test, Shakib's approach did not change. In fact, he kept going at deliveries that promised bad consequences before eventually falling to Alzarri Joseph during a period when the Tigers needed to preserve wickets and see off the new ball's shine.
Tamim Iqbal -- who said he understood that he should have carried on for something bigger after his first innings score of 46 in the second Test -- chased a delivery seaming away from him as he went for a drive and managed to find the wicket-keeper's gloves in the second innings in Saint Lucia.
Such a shot, so far away from his body, could not have produced any other result.
When two of the senior-most batters come out with such an approach, especially when one of them is Test captain, what message does it send about Test culture to the rest of the team?
Shakib and Tamim have similar shot-playing tendencies, part and parcel of their natural game. Shakib's five Test centuries have come at an average strike-rate of over 70 while Tamim's Test tons have a similar average strike-rate.
The batting consultant, coaches and many others have talked about patience, but if the Test culture is to be improved, shouldn't it begin with way the two senior members approach Tests?
BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon said yesterday he did not altogether disagree with what Shakib had to say about the Test culture. "Test cricket is a game of patience. But that patience applies not only to players, but everyone else," Nazmul remarked, suggesting fans and the media need to exercise patience as India and other teams took a long time to find their feet in Test cricket.
However, should that patience not start from the cricketers in national team for whom the fans usually go to the ground?
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