Failure to adjust sees Tigers in disarray

After the second day of the Colombo Test, Bangladesh coach Phil Simmons had hoped that his batters would "take notes" of how Sri Lanka's Pathum Nissanka struck a brilliant a century and score big in the second innings.

But his hopes were shattered on Friday, as Bangladesh's struggles with the bat worsened in their second innings, leaving them staring at defeat after the conclusion of the third day's play against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

Bangladesh are trailing by 96 runs and have lost six top-order batters for just 115 runs before stumps, having batted for a little over a session.

Earlier on the day, left-arm spinner Taijul Islam was rewarded for his perseverance with a five-wicket haul but the same resolution was missing in Bangladesh's batting effort.

In the first innings, majority of the batters got starts but could not capitalise and in the second innings, the application of the batters failed to match the merit of the Lankan bowlers.

Bangladesh's highest partnership in the match came during the first innings, when Mushfiqur Rahim and Litton Das both received reprieves from fielders and strung together 67. But on Day 3, having conceded a 211-run lead, the visiting batters could only muster 30-odd partnerships – the highest being a 32-run stand between captain Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mominul Haque.

Arguably, Bangladesh did not get the best conditions for batting in either of their innings but the wicket still had enough for batters to persevere.

Anamul Haque Bijoy's tenure as opener appears to be coming to an end after another unspectacular show. Having failed to get off the mark twice this series, he proceeded to try and negotiate Lankan pacers by moving further during his trigger movement.

Even though he managed to hit a couple of fours and a six in his run-a-ball 19, his unease was clear. He eventually succumbed to a short delivery and the manner of his dismissal showing that his domestic form is not quite meeting international red-ball standards.

Mominul was one of the players alongside Mushfiqur to have prepared well for the tour but having managed starts, he threw his wicket away in his previous three innings in the series. And on Friday, loss of focus saw him get dismissed cheaply to a pretty regular delivery.

Mominul has one fifty in his last 10 innings and questions will be asked about his place in the side.

"Every batter got out after getting set and scoring 25-30 runs. But if there were two hundreds or even two fifties from these players, we would have been in a better position," Taijul remarked at the press conference yesterday.

Application of the batters have remained somewhat ambiguous throughout the series. When they needed to be on the front foot to negotiate the turn, many of the batters went onto the back foot, so, whenever the Lankan spinners produced arm deliveries, they suffered.

While arguably the bowlers let Bangladesh down in the Test, the batting department's failure was the bigger concern as another innings defeat looms.